Van Pools Blog

Tracy McConell and Alice Lee-Cook

The National Defense Industrial Association’s Environment, Energy, Security & Sustainability Symposium and Exhibition (E2S2) opened at the Denver Convention Center yesterday and many of the nearly 1,100 attendees flocked to VPSI’s booth to learn more about sustainable transportation solutions like vanpooling. With about 1,100 vanpools in service at 96 military installations around the country, many of the conference attendees were familiar with VPSI’s program but few realized VPSI captured and reported the environmental benefits that result from the program. Mr. Herman Varmall, Environmental Department Head at the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland, observed that collecting and reporting the environmental benefits of the carpools and vanpools commuting to “Pax River” would help support the base’s overarching sustainability goals.

Other visitors to VPSI’s booth sought guidance in launching or expanding existing vanpooling programs at their installations. VPSI representatives Tracy McConnell and Alice Lee-Cook spoke with a myriad of attendees who wanted to join vanpools themselves to take advantage of the military’s generous commute-to-work transportation benefit program. “As first time exhibitors at E2S2, I’ve been very impressed with both the quality and quantity of inquiries we’ve received,” noted Ms. McConnell. “I also think the NDIA Exhibits Manager, Dennis Tharp, has done a great job of making us feel very welcome here.”

Alice checks VPSI's leads

Next year’s Environment, Energy, Security & Sustainability Symposium and Exhibition will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans from May 9 – 12, 2011 and VPSI is already planning to attend. “I am hoping to work with the NDIA meeting planners to secure a speaking role for VPSI at next year’s E2S2 conference,” observed Michael Norvell, VPSI’s Vice President of Business Development. “With our national footprint and environmental reporting capabilities, sustainable commuting solutions like vanpooling have excellent application potential at virtually every military installation in the nation. It’s really just a matter of continuing to raise awareness about the program, and speaking at next year’s conference would be a great way to reach a substantial and influential audience,” he added.

Tags: Alice Lee-Cook, Dennis Tharp, Denver Convention Center, E2S2, Energy, Environment, Herman Varmall, Michael Norvell, National Defense Industrial Association, Naval, NDIA, Security & Sustainability Symposium and Exhibition, Sustainable Transportation, Tracy McConnell

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 2:20 am and is filed under Interviews and Experts, Summer 2010, Sustainable Transportation, Transportation Cost Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.