Clean Air Counts Campaign Launches Ahead of Smog Season
Metro Atlantans encouraged to take cleaner trips, earn prizes for helping improving traffic congestion and air quality
ATLANTA, GA – April 2, 2026 – Georgia Commute Options (GCO) announced the launch of Clean Air Counts, a month-long initiative centered on air quality improvement while reinforcing and rewarding sustainable commuting behaviors. Kicking off April 1, the multi-modal campaign encourages metro Atlanta residents to capture their clean air impact through the MyGCO platform, making it clear that every commute counts toward making the region healthier.
The timing of the campaign is critical, launching in April to kick off Earth Month, and just ahead of Georgia’s smog season (May-September), when the region typically sees spikes in Air Quality Index (AQI) values. Daily actions like commuting directly impact our air quality. Tailpipe emissions and even just rolling tires add significant amounts of microscopic particles, sulfur oxides, and nitrogen oxides to our air, contributing to dangerous air quality days and worsening asthma and heart conditions. The Clean Air Counts campaign provides a tangible way for commuters to improve air quality, track their individual and collective pollution savings through the MyGCO dashboard, and to be rewarded for their contributions.
“Every commute decision has an impact,” says GCO program coordinator Shaumond Scott. “This April, Clean Air Counts helps make those impacts count for good. When the region’s commuters choose to not drive alone, it helps reduce congestion and improve the air we breathe. Your choices count, the data counts, and the outcomes count.”
To reward action, GCO is incentivizing sustainable commute trips—including transit, carpooling, vanpooling, biking, walking, and teleworking. Participants who log a clean commute in April via MyGCO.com or the MyGCO app will be entered to win a grand prize drawing for a luxury Atlanta staycation for two at the Four Seasons Hotel, including spa credit and two tickets to the Fox Theatre (for a total prize value of $1,700).
Commuters also earn points for every clean commute they take. Points can be redeemed for entries into prize drawings for tickets to major sporting events, passes to music festivals, and other exciting ATL Experiences such as Swim with Gentle Giants at Georgia Aquarium and a 90-minute Porsche track session behind the wheel of a Macan Electric.
“Hundreds of thousands of people choose transit, carpooling, biking, and walking every day. That has a profound impact on our region’s health, and we want to recognize that and encourage those commuters,” says Johann Weber, program administrator for GCO. “Clean Air Counts invites the entire region to reconnect with the many benefits of a better commute—for ourselves and for our neighbors across metro Atlanta.”
Clean Air Counts is presented by Georgia Commute Options. Partner organizations include local transportation management associations ASAP, Clifton Corridor TMA, Livable Buckhead, Midtown Alliance, Perimeter Connects, and Shift. For more information on how to join the challenge or to view the impact dashboard, visit MyGCO.com.
For media questions/bookings, contact Shaumond Scott, sscott@atlantaregional.org, 470.378.1465; or Nicole Lenti, nicole.lenti@odonnellco.com, 470.552.1418.
About Georgia Commute Options
Georgia Commute Options, a program managed by the Atlanta Regional Commission and funded through the Georgia Department of Transportation, works with employers, commuters and schools to encourage drivers who ride alone to make the switch to a commute alternative such as riding transit, teleworking, carpooling, vanpooling, walking and/or biking, with the ultimate goal of reducing congestion and the emissions that contribute to smog pollution. For more information, visit www.GaCommuteOptions.com and follow Georgia Commute Options on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Get access to cash incentives by logging your clean commute on our website or through the MyGCO platform, which is available for download via the App Store or Google Play, or go to MyGCO.com.