Charity
Pedometer Challenge 2014 – Walking in Sunshine!
Employees All Over the Country Team Up to Walk their Way into Autumn
More than one billion steps were taken by 748 teams from 50 of Ireland’s largest workplaces as part of the Smarter Travel Workplaces Pedometer Challenge. The Pedometer Challenge is organised by the National Transport Authority in partnership with the Irish Heart Foundation. The overall winner of the Smarter Travel Workplaces Pedometer Challenge is The Green Team from the University of Limerick who clocked up an impressive team average of 812,326 steps over four weeks.
Research conducted by National Transport Authority among participants found:
- 49% of respondents stated that they intend to walk to work on a regular / occasional basis following the Pedometer Challenge, up from 13% walking to work at the start of the Challenge
- 56% said that it helped them feel good about themselves
- 67% of survey respondents said that the Pedometer Challenge helped increase their activity levels
- 74% of respondents enjoyed being part of a team
Gerry Murphy, Chief Executive of the National Transport Authority commented: “Over the past seven years, the Pedometer Challenge has proved to be a great way to encourage participants to consider walking as an alternative to the car for the commute. Additionally, participants report increased fitness and a boost in staff morale. We are delighted to run this challenge in partnership with the Irish Heart Foundation once again this year and help raise funds to support their work.”
Mr Barry Dempsey, Chief Executive of the Irish Heart Foundation commented: “We are delighted to be involved in the Pedometer Challenge again this year; it is a great workplace initiative to encourage and support employees to get more active. Being regularly active, that is 30 minutes of moderate activity five days a week reduces risk of heart disease and stroke by between 20% to 35%”.
John Flynn from Trinity College Dublin was the winner of the Irish Heart Foundation sponsored prize which is a place on their overseas European walk in 2015. The Best Workplace Awards went to SSE Airtricity and Roughan & O’Donovan for being the workplaces with the highest percentage uptake among staff in the Pedometer Challenge.
The Smarter Travel Workplaces Pedometer Challenge, which is organised by the National Transport Authority in partnership with the Irish Heart Foundation, ran for a four week period, and ended on the 5th of October 2014.
Read more about Smarter Travel here!