Throughout my quest to have a greener office, I have always looked for incentives and grants to do so. The best places to look are with your power utility company like Puget Sound Energy or Seattle City Light as well as through city, state, and federal government agencies.
My latest find is with the City of Redmond’s Trip Incentive Reduction Program.  I have been working with Erika Vandenbrande, the R-Trip Program Manager to figure out how I can take advantage of their incentive program.  I have been looking for ways to encourage people to take alternate methods of transportation into the office.  One of the ways is to encourage people to ride their bicycle.
I was talking wtih a few of thinkspace members and they said that they would ride into the office if they had secure bicycle storage.  They are looking for more than just a bike rack to chain the bicycle up to.  They would like to see secure bicycle storage.
When I was discussing this with Erika, she said that R-Trip has an incentive grant program which could be used to create secure bicycle storage.  Through this grant program, I am having a chain link fence built in one area of the parking garage for bicycle storage.  It will be accessed through a door with a combination lock that only the bicyclist will know.  There will also be a chair/bench inside that area for people to change their shoes.
This is pretty cool that the City of Redmond has this program!
R-Trip has a formula for small companies of less than 100 employees.  R-Trip will pay the first $1,200 of my bicycle storage expense and provide a 50% match above this amount.  For companies that have 100-500 employees R-Trip will pay the first $2,400 and provide a match of 33% above this amount.  For companies with more than 500 employees, R-Trip will pay the first $3,600 and provide a match of 25% above this amount.  To apply for the grant, you can go to the R-Trip Employers website and fill out an application.