Bicycle Friendly Business

The Burke Group, Rosemont, IL| Gold Level

Business Highlights: The Burke Group employees are paid $0.75 for every mile commuted by bike. They can then invest this money to bike maintenance and accessories.  The Burke Group provides an annual bike giveaway for the employee with the most miles.  There are also quarterly giveaways of cycling gear (vests, lights, etc.). The Burke Group partners with a local bike shop to provide additional discounts for employees.  They also provide monthly breakfasts for bike commuters where they encourage all new bikers or employees who are thinking about bicycle commuting to attend and get more information. They post maps of routes to work on the intranet and employees offer to meet new cyclists in certain locations to chaperone them to work. There are monthly emails to the entire company promoting bicycling commuting and offering assistance. Prior to Bike to Work week, the Active Transportation Alliance comes to The Burke Group to give a lecture on the benefit of biking to work and safety tips. The company makes biking more appealing by housing maintenance supplies, a bike repair station, secure indoor bike parking and a locker/ shower facility at the office and a company fleet bikes.  Additionally, the office is located within direct access of a bike path and adjacent to streets with bike lanes.

Most Significant Bicycle Related Statistic: The Burke Group set a goal of 20,000 miles for 2009, and had achieved 17,750 at the time of this submittal, two months before the end date. For 2008, their goal was 15,000 and they rode 17,000 miles. On Bike to Work Week they rode 1650 miles with 31 participating employees.

Most Significant Bike Related Accomplishment: The Burke Group did not have a lot of regular cyclists when they started this campaign.  They now have a lot of employees who consider themselves cyclists and some even have gone on to enter races and rides on the weekends.