This office perk sure beats casual Fridays and free bottled water: $3,000 from Bank of America for employees buying a hybrid car. Community relations manager Kim Parkinson (left) hadn't been planning to go hybrid when the bank piloted a "drive green" subsidy in Boston, Charlotte, and Los Angeles in mid-2006. But getting $3,000 to defray the $32,000 sticker price - an offer the bank expanded to employees nationwide last year - persuaded Parkinson to replace her Volkswagen Cabrio with a gas-electric Toyota Highlander. She drives statewide for work and from her North Attleborough home to the commuter rail station. Clocking 32 miles per gallon, she can go two weeks between fill-ups. Plus, Parkinson raves, "It's very, very quiet. People say: How do you know it's even on?"
PETER J. HOWE
