Step

Welcome to the Pedometer Challenge 2011!

Wednesday 14 September – Tuesday 11 October


This year more than 3,300 people from 40 of Ireland’s largest workplaces virtually stepped to the top of the world’s highest peaks, as part of the Smarter Travel Workplaces ‘Pedometer Challenge’. The Challenge ran for four weeks, ending on the 11th of October last and was organised by the National Transport Authority in partnership with the Irish Heart Foundation, to encourage people to walk for health and for the commute.


During the four-week challenge, teams took an amazing 204 million steps and virtually stepped to the top of some of the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Everest and 11 of Ireland’s tallest mountains. Those walking to work in the participating companies more than doubled, with participants also fundraising for the Irish Heart Foundation as they walked, raising €5,000 through pedometer sales.


Participants were encouraged to walk all or part of the way to and from work and to swap short car journeys for walking, to help clock up steps for their teams. Some found very creative ways to take steps, with one participant, Muriel Cullen from Waterford County Council, who commented, “When sorting the washing out, I put the basket up on the worktop so that I could step on the spot while sorting the clothes.”


Another participant, Frances Boylan from Dublin Institute of Technology, forgot to wear her pedometer on the first day of the Challenge, and found herself “…determined not to miss out on any further precious steps, so I decided to count in my head, but with lips moving furiously as I ran. I would never have guessed that it was 162 steps to my seat on the train!”


For others the challenge gave them the gentle push and the incentive they needed to get active. “If I wasn’t walking in the evening after work I was out early in the morning. My wife could not understand it, what alien had taken over my body,” said Ray O’Mullane, ESB.


Innostep from Leo Pharma were the winners of this year’s Pedometer Challenge. After all their hard work each team member won a prize of a €150 one for all gift voucher. They were followed in close second by The Hot Steppers from the Mater Hospital and The Jolly Walkers from the National Rehabilitation Hospital in third place. The winner of a place on the Irish Heart Foundation’s European Walk in 2012 is Julia O’Halloran from ESB. To see the final team results check out the Pedometer Challenge leader board.


A huge congratulations to all who took part in this year’s Pedometer Challenge.


Participating Companies

  • Accenture
  • An Bord Pleanala
  • Aramark
  • Atkins
  • Citi
  • Cork City Council
  • Cork University Hospital
  • Deloitte
  • Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
  • DIT
  • Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
  • EMC
  • ESB
  • Hewlett Packard
  • HSE West
  • IADT
  • IBM Technology Campus
  • IT Blanchardstown
  • KBC Bank Ireland PLC
  • Leo Pharma Labs
  • Mater Misericordiae University Hospital
  • Microsoft
  • National Rehabilitation Hospital
  • NUIG
  • Oracle
  • Pfizer
  • Rabo Bank/ACC
  • Railway Procurement Agency
  • Roughan & O’Donovan
  • RPS
  • South Dublin County Council
  • St. James’s Hospital
  • St. Michael’s Hospital
  • St. Vincent’s University Hospital
  • Temple Street Children’s Hospital
  • University College Cork
  • University College Dublin
  • Veolia Transport Dublin Light Rail Limited
  • Waterford City Council
  • Waterford County Council