May Food Truck Rodeo

Join us for the RTP Food Truck Rodeo
on
Thursday, May 17^th

Calling all Food Truck fans! Bring your friends, bring your colleagues, and come on out for RTP’s May Food Truck Rodeo.

Date: Thursday, May 17
Time: 11:30 AM -1:30 PM
Location: RTP Headquarters, 12 Davis Drive (Directions)

In honor of National Bike Month and Bike to Work Week, SmartCommute@rtp will be providing free gifts to anyone that rides their bike to the event and providing useful information on bicycle commuting.

Participating Food Trucks:

Pie Pushers
@piepushers

Only Burger
@onlyburger

The Parlour
@parlourdurham

Chirba Chirba Dumpling
@chirbachirba

Will and Pops
@willandpops

Olde North State BBQ
@ONSBBQ

As always, parking is limited so we strongly encourage carpooling, and of course, riding your bike to the event!

We look forward to seeing everyone!

AND save the date for next Food Truck Rodeo on Thursday, June 14^th!

Gear up for Bike Month: May 2012

Let’s face it: we live in an automobile-centric nation, and I don’t think I’d be surprising anyone in saying that the Triangle isn’t necessarily the ideal place to commute to and from work by bike.  However, that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to ride your bike to work; nor does it mean that the Triangle isn’t a bicycle friendly community. In fact, the town of Carrboro has received a silver designation for being a bicycle friendly community from the League of American Bicyclists; and Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh have all received bronze designations. Clearly, bicycle commuting in the Triangle is growing in popularity and amenities to support it are also growing.

For the month of May, the Triangle is celebrating Bike To Work Month, an entire month dedicated to encouraging and supporting one of the most economical and healthy ways of commuting. This month is an opportunity to celebrate the unique power of the bicycle and the many reasons people ride. Whether you bike to work or school; to save money or time; to preserve your health or the environment; to explore your community or get to your destination, biking can be one of the most rewarding modes of transportation. And if you’ve been thinking about starting to ride to work, but haven’t put your foot to the pedal yet, I hope you’ll use this month to give it a go.

There are lots of events going on in the Triangle to celebrate Bike to Work Month, including several events in RTP, sponsored by SmartCommute@rtp:

• Bicycle Community Basics – Lunch and Learn
  Thursday, May 10, 11:30AM-1PM
  RTP Headquarters, 12 Davis Dr.
  This seminar will cover the basics of commuting by bicycle, safe cycling, riding in traffic, crash avoidance, and cyclists’ rights and responsibilities. The course is open to anyone and both novice and experienced riders are welcome and encouraged to attend. Registration Required.

• Bike to Work Month After-Hours Social
  Tuesday, May 15, 5-7PM
  Serena, 5311 South Miami Blvd. Suite A
  Cyclists enjoy free appetizers, drinks, and giveaways.

• Ride of Silence
  Wednesday, May 16, 7PM
  RTP Headquarters, 12 Davis Dr.
  A silent procession to honor cyclists who’ve been killed or injured on public roadways. Organized by MS Fits and hosted by SmartCommute@rtp, this free ride that asks its cyclists to ride no faster than 12 mph, wear helmets, follow the rules of the road and remain silent during the ride. Visit www.msfits.org/ride-of-silence.html for more information.

• Bike to Work Month Breakfast Social
  Friday, May 18, 7-9AM
  RTP Headquarters, 12 Davis Dr.
  Cyclists enjoy a free continental breakfast and giveaways.

For a complete list of the Bike to Work Month events occuring Triangle-wide, visit GoTriangle. And for more information and resources on biking in the RTP area, visit SmartCommute.org.

Give a Book. Change a Life.

Community Outreach@rtp will be running a book drive from April 19 to May 15, and we need your new and gently used children’s books!

Books in the home are the single biggest predictor of academic success – yet more than half of our country’s low-income children do not own a single book, setting them up to struggle in school and to perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

The books we collect will be donated to Books on Break, a program to enable Durham’s low-income children to select up to ten books to take home and keep at the end of the school year.  These books will help arrest the summer slide that plagues low-income children and that contributes to the achievement gap.

There are a few easy ways to participate:

• Between now and May 15^th, simply drop your book donations in the specially marked bins located at RTP Headquarters, 12 Davis Drive (and at the Food Truck Rodeo on the 19^th).  Your company may be hosting drop off bins as well.

• If you don’t have gently used books at home to donate, please consider purchasing new books.  To make it even easier, buy books from Books on Break’s Amazon wish list and have them shipped directly to the RTP Headquarters:  http://amzn.com/w/1HQGXBNUBPF0X
  OR
  Stop by the Regulator Bookshop on Ninth Street in Durham and purchase a new book to donate to Books on Break; you’ll receive a 20% discount.

We need books for elementary school children (1^st through 6^th grade), from picture books to chapter books.  And we are grateful for both new books and gently used books that your kids may have outgrown.

Books on Break is a joint project of Community Outreach@rtp (a committee of the RTP Owners and Tenants Assocation), Book Harvest and Durham Public Schools.

To learn more, please visit www.bookharvestnc.org and www.rtp.org/community. And if you’d like to host a drop off location at your office, we have sign templates and flyers available at www.rtp.org/community.

Thank you for helping Triangle kids experience the joy of book ownership this summer!

The Earth Day Celebration Roundup

April has easily become a month dedicated to increased awareness and activity in the arena of sustainability, and Earth Day is right around the corner (April 22^nd).  Over the next few weeks, many companies are putting together events for their employees to help engage and educate them on ways they can improve the planet.  Companies like IBM, Cisco, and BASF are inviting organizations to share some of the great information they have on ways employees can help the planet.  For example, SmartCommute@rtp will be providing information on ways employees can green up their commutes.

Of course, even if your company isn’t offering an event, there are still lots of ways to celebrate Earth Day, right here in RTP.

RTP Earth Day GetConnected Event
If you haven’t already heard, RTP will be hosting its very own Earth Day Celebration in conjunction with the Triangle Green Business Challenge Kickoff on April 23, from 4pm to 6:30pm at the RTP Headquarters.  This event will include food, beverages, raffles, and guest speakers.  (You can register here.)  You’ll likely be hearing more about this event in the coming days.

RTP Electronics Recycling Day
Environment@rtp will be hosting its annual Spring Electronics Recycling Drive on Wednesday, April 25th for RTP for employees to drop off unneeded household electronics for donation and/or recycling. Visit www.environmentrtp.org/news-events/electronics-recycling-events for more information on this free event.

Books on Break Book Drive
Community Outreach@rtp will be hosting its inaugural “Books on Break” book drive for elementary students.  Instead of disposing of those gently used books you have lying around, donate and allow them to be reused, the best form of recycling.  Visit www.rtp.org/community for more information.

And if that’s not enough, here’s my roundup of upcoming celebratory Earth Day Events around the Triangle for the whole family: Read more »

Think. Act. Breathe. 2012 Air Quality Awareness Season Begins

With April upon us, we’re all excited about the opportunity to be outdoors more.  Some of us look forward to dining al fresco, others enjoy biking to work, and some of us explore our RTP pedestrian trails, while others enjoy the rugged RTP mountain biking trail. But along with our warmer weather come concerns about our regional air quality.

The two biggest air quality problems in North Carolina are ground-level ozone (the main ingredient in “smog”) and particle pollution. Both pollutants are caused mainly by emissions from cars and trucks, and from the coal-burning power plants that supply most of our electricity.  Because hot, sunny conditions are needed for elevated ozone levels, ozone is only a problem during the warm-weather months. The ozone forecast season, when N.C. Division of Air Quality forecasts daily ozone levels, is April 1 to October 31.

For those of your working or passing through the Park, you may notice SmartCommute@rtp member employers posting informational signs letting Park  employees know what the Air Quality Forecast is for the day using the Air Quality Index (AQI). The AQI is a tool used to report levels of ozone, particles and other pollutants in the air to the public. The AQI scale is divided into five color-coded categories, each corresponding to a different level of health concern ranging from green (good) to purple (very unhealthy). Greater AQI values correspond to greater concentrations of air pollution and indicate greater health danger.

The air quality color codes are:

 
Even with cleaner cars and other new technology, our air could get worse as our population grows, endangering our health and reducing our quality of life. The good news is that by being mindful of our daily activities, we can make a few simple changes to help us all breathe easier. Read more »

Join the Great Backyard Bird Count

Did you know that there are over 115 different bird species that have been observed in RTP? Starting tomorrow, you’ll have a great reason to get outside and see some yourself!

Bluebirds will begin nesting in March.

The 15th annual Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up, February 17-20.  This project is one of the largest, most enjoyable citizen-science projects on the planet and this year should be especially interesting because of the warmer temperatures and lack of snowfall that we’ve experienced this winter.

To participate, just count birds anywhere you wish (even outside your RTP office) for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the GBBC. Then, report the highest number of each species seen together at one time on the GBBC website: www.birdcount.org. Everything you need to know is on the website along with an instructional video and downloadable instructions.

You can upload a photo for consideration in the GBBC photo contest. Explore data on the website using maps and charts that show what everyone is reporting. Anyone who participates also has a chance to win great prizes! Tweet about the birds you’re seeing and include the #gbbc tag to have your message show up in the Twitter widget on the GBBC home page. The GBBC is hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society along with Canadian partner, Bird Studies Canada.

Just one of RTP's 40 Blue Bird Boxes.

And if you’re interested in getting more involved with birds on a local scale, consider adopting one of RTP’s 40 bluebird boxes for the Spring and Summer. Environment@rtp will be hosting a Bluebird Box Adoption Lunch and Learn event on March 9, 2012 from 11:30am to 1:00pm for anyone interested in the program!  For more information about the Bluebird Box Adoption program or the Lunch and Learn event, visit www.environmentrtp.org. To register for the Lunch and Learn, use our registration form.

Biogen Idec Plugs In

The buzz around plug-in electric vehicles has been livelier than ever in North Carolina, and RTP is certainly becoming a hub of activity for the technology.  RTI unveiled two new electric vehicle charging stations back in November, and just this past Tuesday,  Biogen Idec held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for ten new electric vehicle charging stations at its RTP campus.

Back in November, I had the opportunity to participate in Biogen Idec’s multi-day Sustainability Fair for employees, and got a chance to hear about the exciting work they were doing to bring these charging stations to fruition and procure funding incentives to encourage employees to purchase or lease electric vehicles.  On Tuesday, Biogen Idec’s work paid off, and they cut the ribbon for their new stations, the first for any of their worldwide locations.

Biogen Idec purchased the charging stations with support from the Carolina Blue Skies Initiative, a project led by Triangle J Council of Governments (TJCOG), with $12 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.  Biogen Idec has the distinction of being the first organization in the Triangle to successfully deploy electric charging stations under this initiative.

Biogen Idec installed ten Level 2 charging stations at their RTP Campus.

Pat Hoy was one of the four employees that took advantage of the incentive provided to Biogen Idec employees through Advanced Energy to purchase a Nissan Leaf.  He received a $7500 stipend to offset the purchase price and will also receive a $7500 tax credit.  Speaking briefly at the ceremony, Pat mentioned that one of the greatest benefits of owning a plug-in electric vehicle is that it allows him to bypass the gas station.  “I haven’t been to a gas station in three and half weeks since I’ve owned the car… There aren’t too many other people that can say that.”  He also highlighted some of the technological benefits, such as being able to remotely pre-cool the car’s interior using his smartphone (as long as the car is plugged in).   Read more »

Good Vibrations – Innovation@rtp

Dr. Lane Miller, VP Global R&D, LORD Corp was the speaker at December 14th's Innovation@rtp event.

What do HAL DHRUV active vibration control systems, rubber to substrate adhesives, jet engine isolation systems, low-odor adhesives, UK-60 rod ends, highly resilient elastomers, and V-22 elastomeric bearings have in common? Well, besides being things for which I have no understanding, they’re all innovative solutions developed by pioneering employees at LORD Corporation.

Headquartered in Cary, LORD Corporation is the leader in the development and implementation of computer controlled systems for managing dynamic loads and motions for vehicles and aircraft. Now, LORD linear and rotary controllable damping technology is implemented on cars, trucks, marine craft, spacecraft, and civil structures worldwide.

On December 14^th, the Innovation@rtp speaker series was delighted to host Dr. Lane Miller, VP Global R&D for LORD Corp with a presentation entitled, “Active Control Solutions for Vibration and Motion (with a Soliloquy on Innovation).” While Dr. Miller gave us some fascinating insight into what his company does (including sharing some fun videos of Humvees on a test track), probably the most important aspect of the presentation was his take on the lessons they’ve learned and some best practices for accelerating innovation.

Dr. Miller's humorous example of someone being inventive, but not very innovative.

One of Dr. Miller’s key messages was to remind us that there is a difference between invention and innovation.  Invention is a clever or unique idea, while innovation deals more with converting technology into stakeholder value.   And often, it takes both of these things to produce results.

And while it’s just common sense to have the right people for the job, Dr. Miller went on to explain what that means in terms of innovation and his company.  He suggested looking for impatient technologists.  As odd as it sounds, it makes sense, because as he pointed out, combining a patient company with an impatient technologist produces results.  LORD Corp also looks for people that are more likely to adapt quickly to changes, more apt to champion someone else’s ideas, and can be introspective regarding their own weaknesses.  Finally, these problem solvers need to understand the business plan, and further, be willing to challenge that plan. Read more »

A Running Start for Triangle Parkway

This past Sunday, 434 people got a chance to travel on North Carolina’s first modern toll road… by foot, as part the Triangle Expressway Trot, and I was lucky enough to be one of them.  The event included food trucks, kids’ activities, equipment demonstrations and supported MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).  The race itself took place on Phase I of the Triangle Expressway, a new toll road that will eventually connect Holly Springs to The Research Triangle Park at 540 and I-40.

And they're off! Runners leaving the start at the Triangle Expressway Trot

I have to admit, there was something very cool about running on a road of this magnitude and significance that hasn’t yet been open to the public, but I also couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, like a kid writing his name in wet cement.  Of course, that didn’t stop me.  And although I was running by, I definitely noted some of the nice attributes of the Triangle Parkway: smooth paving, attractive native and sustainable landscaping, and even the toll gantries are embellished with dogwood flowers in relief.

The Triangle Parkway is the first section of the larger 18.8 mile Triangle Expressway.  This 3.7 mile segment will open to vehicular traffic on December 8, and will be toll-free through January 3, 2012, when tolling will begin.  Interestingly enough, there will be no toll booths and no stopping on the new toll road. Customers may purchase an NC Quick Pass, an electronic sticker transponder, for $5.00, saving them up to 35% on tolls. For those without an NC Quick Pass, overhead high-speed cameras will capture license plate information and bill drivers through a “Bill by Mail” process. Most importantly, the toll-road will offer some definite time savings to commuters, and once all the phases are completed, could shave 40 minutes off the commute time for some.

The North Carolina Turnpike Authority will be holding a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the Triangle Expressway on Thursday, December 8, at 10:30am for those who are interested.  Of course, I’ve already been on the road myself.  Oh, and for all my fans out there dying to know, I came in 20^th in the race. Get more race results here and visit NCDOT’s project page for the Triangle Expressway for more information about the new road and for project updates.

Smart Growth: Building the Research Triangle’s Future

Last Wednesday, the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce hosted an event focused on Smart Growth, featuring the President of Smart Growth America’s Leadership Institute, Parris Glendening, former Governor of Maryland and former County Executive for Prince George County in Maryland.  Governor Glendening’s comments on Smart Growth were particularly appropriate given the Research Triangle’s recent focus on transit and Durham’s transit referendum on the November ballot.

Governor Parris Glendening

Governor Glendening explained that changing transportation policy is not easy, but communities that create transportation choices give their citizens options to meet their daily transportation needs without being held hostage to congestion.  As the Research Triangle grows, as we all know it will, there are going to be significantly increasing demands on roads and other resources, and transit options can mitigate some of those growth-related issues.

The governor also reminded us that a sense of “place” is the greatest asset that cities of all sizes can offer to businesses and the valuable employees that these businesses need in order to do well.  According to Governor Glendening, transit is often the single most important investment we can make if we want our regions to succeed in creating communities with a real sense of place.

Glendening concluded by saying that we need to ask ourselves how we can align our resources and priorities to support the clear visions for prosperity.  He proposed to this end that a community must move to transit as an alternative for getting around and must focus on creating walkable, livable places. Read more »