Get Paid to Buy a Toyota Prius or Honda Hybrid?
Oh those crazy software CEOs ... what will they think
of next? How about paying every employee $5000 for buying a hybrid
automobile that gets better than 45 MPG? That's what Godfrey Sullivan,
president and CEO of business
performance management software developer Hyperion is offering
to his employees ... $5000 to buy a Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, or
Honda Civic Hybrid ... talk about putting your money where your mouth
is ...
The Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, and Honda Civic Hybrid appear to
be the only vehicles that meet the program requirements here in the
US. Overseas employees may be eligible to purchase other hybrid vehicles,
depending on the locale.
According to USA Today, Sullivan came up with the idea
while on horseback. "I was in the middle of a 100-mile horse
race when I dreamed this crazy idea up. It just seemed like a good
idea. You can come up with a lot of creative ideas on the back of
a horse for 15 hours."
Here's the deal, straight from the hybrid horse's mouth
...
Hyperion Offers Employees $5,000 Toward Purchase of Fuel Efficient
Cars
November 29, 2004 – Santa Clara, Calif. – Hyperion (Nasdaq:
HYSL), the leading provider of Business Performance Management software,
today launched a first-of-its-kind initiative to clear the air by
helping its employees purchase fuel-efficient cars for their personal
use. Under its Drive Clean to Drive Change initiative, Hyperion
will reimburse employees US $5,000 for vehicles that achieve 45
miles per gallon or the equivalent of gasoline.
“Companies and individuals have extraordinary power to make a difference,”
said Godfrey Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of
Hyperion, in announcing the initiative. “One of the most important
steps an individual can take to improve the quality of our air is
to drive a vehicle that goes further on a gallon or liter of gas.
One of the most important steps a company can take is to help them.”
The 45-mpg standard, which is approximately 5.3
liters per 100 kilometers, results in dramatically less carbon dioxide
emissions when compared to the vast majority of gasoline-powered vehicles.
The standard also is achievable by fuel-efficient vehicles using technologies
such as hybrid, diesel and electric that increasingly are available
in most of the countries in which Hyperion does business.
Carbon dioxide emissions from personal vehicles are a major cause
of poor air quality in industrialized nations. According to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the United States pumps about
22 tons of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere per person
every year, with Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom each at about
half that level. Switching from a car that gets 20 mpg to one that
gets 45 mpg can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as three
tons per person per year.
“We know we are not necessarily going to change
the world through this initiative, but we aim to get people thinking
about change,” said Sullivan. “Drive Clean to Drive Change is
not just a good thing to do. It’s the right thing to do.”
Other Benefits of Driving Fuel-Efficient Vehicles
Scientists studying the effects of personal vehicle
emissions on the environment agree that carbon dioxide is the dominant
greenhouse gas and that changes in the levels of greenhouses gases
in Earth’s atmosphere are a major cause of global warming. Global
warming – an increase in the Earth’s surface temperature that has
been recorded since the late 19th century and that has accelerated
over the past two decades – could result in problems such as more
severe weather events, more forest fires and damage to our water resources.
Levels of several important greenhouse gases
have increased by about 25 percent since large-scale industrialization
began around 150 years ago. During the past 20 years, about
three-quarters of human-made carbon dioxide emissions were from burning
fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.
Countries that depend on private vehicles to
travel relatively long distances, such as the United States and Canada,
consume the largest amount of oil for transportation. The 290
million people who live in the United States, for example, make up
just five percent of the world’s population, but consume 25 percent
of the world’s oil supply. The United States also consumes almost
nine million barrels of gasoline each day – 43 percent of the world’s
total gasoline consumption.
According to industry sources, if fuel economy in the United States
were improved by just five mpg, American consumers would save 1.5
million barrels of oil per day – more than half of what the United
States imports from the Middle East alone.
Innovative Initiative Design
Under the Drive Clean to Drive Change initiative,
employees who have been with Hyperion one year or longer can seek
reimbursement for one vehicle every four years. Hyperion is
aiming to reimburse up to 200 employees each year; reimbursements
are available to employees on a first come, first served basis.
Hyperion is launching the Drive Clean to Drive Change
initiative immediately. To help other companies that would like
to create similar initiatives for their employees, Hyperion will
share what it has learned, including best practices, through its
newly formed Companies for Clean Air Consortium. More
information about the Drive Clean to Drive Change
initiative and the Companies for Clean Air Consortium
is available on the Web at www.hyperion.com/driveclean
Sullivan said the Drive Clean to Drive Change program
reflects Hyperion’s culture and its commitment to the communities
in which it does business. “Employees can be as proud of our
culture as they are of our software,” said Sullivan.
Tack that $5000 onto the $1500
you'll get back with a hybrid car rebate from the Fed (before
December 31st), and add that to the gasoline savings and that's quite
a nice chunk of change, indeed. Now if only Hyperion happened to be
hiring in my neighborhood ...