green travel ideas for businesses & Organisations
Encouraging sustainable business and commuting travel in your organisation
Putting together a package of measures to reduce the amount of travel that takes place could have benefits for your organisation, your employees and the surrounding community.
Commuting
The cars employees drive to work every day use a huge amount of energy and produce enormous amounts of carbon dioxide. There are a number of ways to reduce the number of car journeys made to your workplace:
Car sharing
Devise a car sharing pool that employees can sign up to, meaning workers will save money on petrol and be able to share the daily journey to and from work in one car instead of several.
The website liftshare offers this service nationally and is the largest car-share network in the UK.
Promote the alternatives
There are lots of websites packed with information on the benefits and ways to travel sustainably. They include information on planning cycle routes and calculating calories burned walking to work. Make them available to your staff on your intranet or newsletter. We have put together a few of our favourites on our householders travel page
Incentives
Sometimes your staff need just a little bit more of a push to persuade them to consider alternatives to their daily drive to work. Consider using incentives to motivate them. One good way of doing this is working with the local public transport companies in the area to better communicate the range of public transport options they can take. A season ticket allowance as part of a benefits package is a great way of making public transport a plausible and affordable option for workers.
The Government's Cycle to Work initiative is a tax break to encourage cycling to work. It means employees make huge savings on a new bike and safety accessories. Employers benefit too by encouraging a healthier workforce and saving money.
We found this list of ideas that companies had successfully put in place on the Walkit website:
- Walkers’ breakfasts – the company provides a hearty breakfast once a month for everyone who regularly walks to work
- Sustainable travel incentives – staff are paid a small amount of money (£0.50 or £1) each day they walk to work or arrive by public transport
- Give your staff personalised information and resources. Many people get into a travel ‘rut’, and don’t realise that it can sometimes be quicker to walk a journey! How about providing every member of your team who lives within 2 miles of work with a walkit.com map from their home to the office?
Flexible, smarter working
Measures to change working practices - like flexible working or teleconferencing - may require cultural shifts for some organisations, but can offer significant financial and productivity benefits. Employees find them attractive because they allow them to better adapt their working life to accommodate personal commitments such as to their families.
The website chooseanotherway is packed with information about changes that can be made such as:
- Flexible working
- Working from home
- Teleworking to boost productivity and cut your transport costs
- Telephone, video and web conferencing to avoid so many business trips
- Improving on-site facilities to reduce the need for staff to travel off-site during work hours
Want more information?
The National Business travel network enables companies to share best practice and promote the rationale for travel plans and Smarter Choices
Work Wise UK has news and information on Smarter Working issues, including Case Studies.
Energy Saving Trust has information on sustainable travel options and a mini-site on greener Transport in Business - see how much your organisation could save.
