In a bid to make the sky above Beijing cleaner, approximately 30 companies yesterday committed to encouraging their employees to be "green commuters" by using public transport rather than driving their own cars to get to work.

The campaign is being organized by US-based non-profit organization Environmental Defense and its Chinese partners.

Companies to pledge their support include oil giants BP and Shell, as well as China Electrical Council.

Daniel Dudek, chief economist of Environmental Defense, said the actions of individuals are as important as government efforts in protecting the environment.

"Today's commitment to becoming a green commuter contributes to Beijing's clean air, energy saving and Green Olympics efforts."

He also linked commuters' actions to the county's target of cutting energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 per cent from 2005 to 2010.

"It is hard to imagine, but driving less and taking public transport more will help fulfil the national ambition," he told China Daily at the launch ceremony yesterday.

Taking subways and buses should be encouraged, and are all "easy steps to take by individuals," Dudek said.

The initiative is part of Environmental Defense's Clean Air Campaign, which also includes air quality sampling, lab analysis, environmental information release, and public information exchange platform.

"All sub-projects are based on scientific research and public participation and that is an effective approach to solving environmental problems," Dudek said.

Vehicle emissions are the biggest drag on Beijing's air quality, statistics show.

From January to May this year, there were 13 fewer "blue sky" days than the same period in 2005.

Huang Haoming, secretary-general of the China Association of NGO Co-operation (CANGO), which is a co-organizer of the campaign, said that his organization would mobilize more civil organizations and companies under its network to participate in the "Green Commuter" campaign. Currently, CANGO has more than 120 member organizations nationwide.

"We hope that our campaign can be included into the government's environmental agenda to make it much easier to implement " Huang said.

Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau has previously forecast that if all the registered 2.62 million vehicles in Beijing stopped running one day every month, 44,000 tons of pollutants would be cut in one year.

Wang Yue, director of China International Centre for Economic and Technical Exchanges, said he and his 63 employees were committed to the project.

"I came to this event by subway. I'm going to take the lead in using public transportation."

However, while the city's number of cars continues to increase by 10 per cent each year, the campaign faces immense challenges.

(China Daily 06/02/2006 page3)