QGenda and The Shoppe@Buckhead Earn Honors for Telework and Sustainability
Livable Buckhead presents Fifth Annual Mobility Champion and Triple Bottom Line Awards
ATLANTA – March 4, 2022 – Livable Buckhead has announced the recipients of its fifth annual awards honoring local businesses for their outstanding contributions to sustainability and mobility. QGenda, a leading innovator in enterprise healthcare workforce management, has been given the Mobility Champion award for its successful commute options programs. The Shoppe@Buckhead, a small business serving the local community for 23 years, has been recognized with the Triple Bottom Line award for its self-sustaining, energy-efficient building.
“These two businesses have made significant investments in sustainability and mobility that are having tangible, positive effects in the lives of their employees and the local community,” said Denise Starling, executive director of Livable Buckhead. “We are thrilled to honor them for their achievements, and we hope to see more companies follow in their footsteps.”
The Triple Bottom Line award recognizes a Buckhead company or organization that has demonstrated success in the development and implementation of programs, projects, or policies that drive sustainability forward in the community. The Shoppe@Buckhead earned the award for its owners investment in sustainability when constructing their building in 2017. Owners Mahesh and Smita Patel, with the help of their friend Vinay Bose, set out to build a self-sustaining, energy efficient building that could use natural resources to offset energy and water costs. The Shoppe@Buckhead’s entire building is clad with solar panels, including the canopy and roof, enabling the property to produce at least 45% of the energy used by the three businesses on site: a convenience store, Dunkin’ Donuts, boutique restaurant Sumi’s Kitchen.
The Shoppe@Buckhead also captures 100% of the water that falls on its large roof and stores it in two 2,000-gallon underground storage vaults. The rainwater is harvested and used where potable water isn’t needed, such as irrigation and cleaning the parking lot. Additionally, The Shoppe@Buckhead has a soak pit with 32,000-gallon storm traps lets the excess rainwater percolate into the ground, replenishing the natural water table and sending little to no water from this property into the City’s stormwater system.
The Buckhead Mobility Champion award recognizes an employer that has demonstrated success in the development and implementation of a commute alternative program that aims to mitigate traffic congestion, reduce auto emissions and improve quality of life for their employees. For the past five years, QGenda has worked extensively to enhance its overall employee experience. From implementing Livable Buckhead’s discounted transit pass program to participating in challenges that promote walking and biking and sponsoring a park improvement project, QGenda is making an impact, not only on its employees, but the entire community.
More recently, QGenda has implemented a formal telework policy, allowing employees to continue working remotely long-term. Like many other companies, the pandemic pushed QGenda into a fully remote work environment, which worked very well for most employees. As a result, the company decided to keep teleworking in place and formalized its program by identifying which job roles were best suited for it and providing training for remote managers. Today most employees are hybrid – working remotely at least two days per week.
QGenda is expanding quickly and using their robust suite of benefits to attract and retain top talent. With 350 employees working remotely at least two days per week, the company is also helping to reduce Buckhead’s traffic congestion, taking over one million vehicle miles off the road per year and saving nearly 350 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.
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About Livable Buckhead
Livable Buckhead is a nonprofit organization that strives to ensure the long-term viability and prosperity of the Buckhead community. The organization achieves its mission by working cooperatively with individuals, public entities and private businesses to integrate sustainable strategies. Livable Buckhead implements programs related to greenspace, recycling, energy efficiency, commute alternatives, arts and culture, real estate development and land use. For more information about Livable Buckhead and its programs, visit livablebuckhead.org.
