Knox County Mayor's Office

Contact: Susanne Dupes                                          November 10, 2009
215-4439 office
256-0374 cell

Knox Green Team Adds Trane Employees to Ranks

Knoxville, Tenn. — Employees at Tennessee Trane’s Knoxville offices became the first corporate group to join the Knox Green Team yesterday by pledging to “Take 8 for the Environment.”   Knoxville Ice Bears forward, Travis Hanson, was on hand to administer the Knox Green Team pledge to nearly 30 Trane employees.  The Ice Bears signed on in October as the official spokesteam to help publicize the Knox Green Team movement.

The Knox Green Team pledge has four components:  recycling, water quality, air quality and green spaces.  Both the “Take 8” and the “Kids Take 8” pledges ask every Knox Countian to do specific things to help the environment.  Ice Bear Hanson drew a laugh from the crowd with his comic delivery as he administered part #5 of the pledge “Scoop the poop, don’t leave it on the ground.”   “Please,” Hanson encouraged them all, “We need clean water.”

Mayor Mike Ragsdale welcomed Trane employees and Tennessee Trane’s new District Manager Brian Durr to the Green Team.  “Trane has been an excellent partner working to improve the energy efficiency of Knox County’s many facilities, which is going to be an enormous cost-savings for our citizens,” Mayor Ragsdale said.  “We must do more to ensure that our environment is in good shape for our children and their children.  I applaud all of you for making this personal commitment today,” Ragsdale added.  

According to Durr, the Knox Green Team “Take 8” pledge is in great alignment with Trane’s global environmental initiative.  “We have local green team programs and a commitment to reduce our energy consumption at all Trane buildings by 3% in 2009,” Durr explained.  In Trane's local offices, they already have most parts of the “Take 8” pledge in place.

The Knox Green Team is an outgrowth of the County’s internal employee team that was started to encourage employees to make personal lifestyle changes that positively affect our shared environment through county-wide green initiatives.  The employee team’s success resulted in this public movement.  For more information on the Knox Green Team, Take 8 for the Environment, and Kids Take 8 for the Environment, visit www.knoxgreenteam.org.