Commuters passing by Toronto’s busy Yonge and Bloor intersection Wednesday morning had a pleasant surprise: free December bus passes handed out by Shell Canada.
Shell gave away 500 monthly passes to spread the message about its new Shell Quest carbon capture and storage facility near Edmonton. The event started at 7:30 a.m., and according to the company all the passes were gone within 20 minutes.
“People thought we were just giving away fliers at first, but when we said, ‘No, it’s a metro card,’ they were like ‘Wait a minute!'” said Shell Canada media manager Tara Lemay. “One girl came out in her pyjamas. So a pretty good response, it definitely went well.”
Shell is planning to follow up the stunt with a specially branded Shell Quest bus that will be running on various Toronto routes for the next few weeks.
Lemay said while the company’s efforts around climate change have been promoted heavily in the energy and environmental communities, Shell wanted to make them known more widely to the public. Tying in to public transit, she said, was intended to convey that reducing our environmental impact takes collaboration between industry, government and the public.
“Everyone has a role to play in reducing emissions, and taking transit is something we can all do,” she said.
Shell Quest, which was officially launched in Alberta on Nov. 6th, is designed to capture upwards of 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted by Shell’s bitumen refining operations in the oil sands. The facility will capture one third of the emissions put out by Shell’s Scotford upgrader each year, which is equivalent to to the emissions of about 250,000 cars.
Lemay said Shell chose to promote the project outside of Alberta because climate change is a national concern, and because Shell wanted to recognize Canadian taxpayers for making Quest possible. The federal government contributed $740 million to develop Shell Quest, along with the government of Alberta, which contributed $120 million.
She said Toronto was chosen because research shows residents have a strong desire to reduce their environmental impact, but fewer of them use public transit than in other major cities. Based on the results of the stunt, which was organized by Edelman, Shell may take it to other cities as well.
