Walk To Shop Month | Deb Sachs
Deb Sachs, Director of Net Zero Vermont and Project Manager of the Walk to Shop program, returns to discuss sustainable transit. Discover how modern shopping trolleys are helping Burlington reach its Net Zero Energy goals by replacing short car trips with active walking. Learn about the “Show Me Your Steps” coffee campaign launching this May, offering incentives for residents to track their progress. This episode highlights the environmental, health, and social benefits of walkable communities while encouraging everyone to get outside today and participate.
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Deb Sachs, Director of Net Zero Vermont and Project Manager of the Walk to Shop program, returns to discuss sustainable transit. Discover how modern shopping trolleys are helping Burlington reach its Net Zero Energy goals by replacing short car trips with active walking. Learn about the “Show Me Your Steps” coffee campaign launching this May, offering incentives for residents to track their progress. This episode highlights the environmental, health, and social benefits of walkable communities while encouraging everyone to get outside today and participate.
Transcript
Jennifer Green 00:00 Hello, Burlington and welcome to Net Zero Energy. I’m Jennifer Green, director of sustainability for the City of Burlington, where our goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate fossil fuel usage. It’s so great to have Deb Sachs with us. Deb is the director of Net Zero Vermont and the project director or manager of the Walk to Shop program. Deb, this is your second time on the Net Zero Energy podcast, and we’re so glad you’re back.
Deb Sachs 00:35 Thank you Jen. I’m happy to be here.
Jennifer Green 00:37 Yeah. You have your spring jacket on. Folks can’t see, but Deb’s jacket matches the walk to shop trolley. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about the trolley, and then we’ll talk about why you’re here and why May’s particularly special?
Deb Sachs 00:52 Yes. The last time I was here, we were just getting off the ground. I think that was four years ago or something like that. We were getting off the ground with walk to Shop. It was an initiative or it is an initiative to encourage more people to walk more often. And in addition, we’re raising awareness about the concept of fifteen minute neighborhoods and walkable communities.
Jennifer Green 01:15 Okay, so folks that don’t know about the trolley, how does the trolley fit into that mission of more walking?
Deb Sachs 01:20 The trolley is a two wheeled modern granny cart, and it’s a terrific lightweight tool that’s affordable, that can help you get your groceries home easily.
Jennifer Green 01:33 I noticed, since you were last here, I’ve seen sort of a proliferation of these trolleys around town. It looks like they go easily on the bus. It looks like they can haul a lot of groceries. Sort of. What has the uptake been?
Deb Sachs 01:45 The uptick is we have about two thousand five hundred trolley users now, and when we started, that was surpassed our expectations. The interest by people in downtowns and villages Burlington, South Burlington, Williston, where you have villages and people can use the bus. you can take up to fifty pounds of groceries. That’s about four to five bags of groceries on in the large trolley, in the medium trolley, about four bags. And the medium trolley is a little smaller for the aging population. For the population or person, that might be a little shorter. I know I’m shrinking as I get older, but, and it’s become, they’re all over the place now. They’re used at farmers markets. They’re used at grocery stores, on the bus, laundromats.
Jennifer Green 02:40 And how does one get a trolley? If one wants to purchase one.
Deb Sachs 02:43 They can go on on our site, walktoshop.org and write us an email. We’ll get you that on May sixteenth and twenty third. We expect to be at the farmers market, the Burlington Farmers Market on May second. We’ll be in Williston at the green up day, the green up fair.
Jennifer Green 03:01 Great. So it’s getting easier and easier to find you and certainly easier to see those carts all around. As I say, they’ve been sort of multiplying, at least in Burlington. But, Deb, we’re here to talk more about the carts in light of Net Zero Energy and Burlington’s pledge to reduce vehicle miles traveled by fifteen percent. So you’ve been promoting the shopping trolley, the walk to shop program, and you really are going all out in May. Tell us what your plans are for May twenty twenty six.
Deb Sachs 03:31 Well, May is National Walking Month and in that spirit we are standing up, walk. May is Walk to Shop month, and we have a coffee campaign to actually incentivize people to go out. And where our goal is one million steps in May, and that’s towards your goal of fifteen percent. And building that interest and excitement around walking and replacing a short car trip is really what it’s all about. I’ll get into the details in a minute, but really the objective and the purpose is, is to encourage Everyone to walk, for their health, for their wellbeing, to reduce those carbon emissions and have that social connection.
Jennifer Green 04:22 There’s so many co-benefits of walking. In addition, of course, to the carbon reductions that we’re striving for here at BED in the city in general. Yeah, it’s also bike to work month, I think. So you’re really piggybacking on sort of the spring initiative and this idea of getting outside.
Deb Sachs 04:37 It is a time spring is sprung. It is a great time to actually bike, walk, take the bus, try something new, replace that short car trip in Vermont. We’re driving about fifty five to seventy thousand miles a day on trips under a mile. That translates into real change. We can, if we replace a quarter of those trips, that’s adding up. That’s saving the environment. It’s saving money. It’s promoting your health. It’s connecting with community. It’s supporting local economies.
Jennifer Green 05:17 So in addition to the trolley, which helps facilitate that walking and taking the bus for those short trips, it’s in May, you’re going to be offering or some coffee shops in the area are offering a reduction or maybe even free coffee. If you show up with your trolley or, and or demonstrate that you’ve walked to work. Tell us about the coffee program.
Deb Sachs 05:35 Yeah, it’s, you know, it’s Show Me Your Steps campaign. It’s a steps campaign for walking. We’re incentivizing you and we’re sponsored by several coffee shops and the number is growing. Myers bagels is one. Clover is another, jitters is another. You get a free cup of coffee every Tuesday. If you walk in and show your tracker, your watch or your phone. And three thousand steps will get you a free cup of coffee at both Myers and Clover. You get a dollar off every day of the month of May at jitters. And so this is this is really steps to adding up to the one million steps goal and how people can participate is, what’s your destination? Where is your nearby grocery store? And as part of what we’re about, it’s not just a trolley. It is understanding how close things might be. And if we’re walking that many steps or I mean, or driving that many trips for under a mile. Is there any one of those trips that you can replace? When you do that, you’re contributing to your own self and health and pocketbook, and you’re contributing to the community as a whole.
Jennifer Green 06:54 The shops that are participating are online if you want to get a cart. In the meantime, it sounds like you can also order one online through you or calling your number. Yes. If I am eager to kind of start walking and I need this little push from behind a free cup of coffee, do I sign up somewhere? How do I register or get involved?
Deb Sachs 07:12 You simply go to the shop and show your tracker, but to find out what shops are participating. What cafes are participating? You’ll go to our website at walktoshop.org.
Jennifer Green 07:24 You reference tracker. Are you talking about one’s own personal risk device? What’s a tracker?
Deb Sachs 07:29 Yes. Your phone or your wrist watch? Many of them keep track of your steps and it just shows that you’ve walked three thousand steps or you’ll walk three thousand steps by the time you walk back.
Jennifer Green 07:41 Thank you. Deb, I love this. And although Vermont is the first to have a Walk to shop month, I’m quite confident that it’s the beginning of something big. Is there anything else you want to share with our listeners that you think they should know?
Deb Sachs 07:54 I think the big picture thinking here is that we need more opportunities and more pedestrian infrastructure, supporting what people are demanding. More and more people are demanding this. And the work that we’re doing is in Williston. We just did a walk audit in Taft’s corners, and it’s recommendations that are going to the town from raising and elevating local voices to provide input on how they feel it is for their walking experience. Keep your recommendations or suggestions coming forward for the people and the powers that be, so that we can make those important connections, so that we can achieve that fifteen percent reduction in VMT. And reducing that and reducing those short car trips is actually very doable. With a walk, with a bike.
Jennifer Green 08:51 And your trolley.
Deb Sachs 08:52 And your trolley.
Jennifer Green 08:53 Well, Deb, thank you so much. So appreciate all your work and your efforts to reduce vehicle miles traveled in Burlington. Thank you.
Deb Sachs 09:01 Thank you Jen.
Jennifer Green 09:03 Thank you again for listening to Net Zero Energy from Burlington Electric Department. If you have any questions about this show or what Ed offers regarding rebates or technical support, look for us at burlingtonelectric.com or call us at 802-865-7300. We’re here to help you on our mutual path to Net Zero Energy.