A corporate plan to reduce the environmental impact of employee travel

Region(s)	Belgique
In domains	Household Products, Reduced Toxicity, Reduction of Greenhouse Gases
Participants	Colruyt

Summary

The initiative took place at Colruyt’s head office, where about 3,000 employees work. The transport plan was designed to be a “win-win” strategy, i.e. of benefit to both employees and the environment. The results have been quite positive: nearly two-thirds of Colruyt employees have adopted more environmentally-friendly modes of transport.

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Implementation

First, obtain the support of management;

Work with several external stakeholders to set up institutional partnerships (in the case of Colruyt, this was done at the local, regional and national levels, together with Belgium’s leading car-share operator);

Conduct a survey among employees, asking them about their preferred modes of transport, their level of satisfaction with them and their willingness to change the way in which they use cars, public transit, bicycles and scooters (in the case of Colruyt, 75% of employees volunteered to answer the survey within a few weeks);

Design a travel plan based on the survey results. In the case of Colruyt, three key elements were developed:

-Car-sharing: about 1,200 employees have registered in a database, managed by a car-sharing operator, to get specific suggestions about car sharing. The database also allows Colruyt employees to car-share with people working at nearby firms;

-Cycling: the survey showed that the average distance between home and work was 18 km. Given infrequent public transit and the often substantial distances to the nearest bus or train station, employees greatly preferred driving to work. Bicycles were put at employees’ disposal free of charge, while lockers and showers were installed on-site at the firm for people choosing this option;

-Scooters.

Develop incentives to encourage employees to adopt more eco-friendly travel habits:

-Car-sharing: offering employees the option of switching to a different work team or changing their work schedules;

-Cycling: providing a travel allowance of 7.5 cents/km;

-Scooters: offering employees the chance to buy a scooter at a discounted price.
For more information on corporate travel plans and how to implement them, please visit: http://www.mobilitymanagement.be/index.htm

Challenges

Ways to improve participation:

-Create a “travel plan coordinator” position, which is essential to the proper functioning of the plan (the person responsible would look after internal management, relations with external partners, travel planning, training sessions, etc.). In the case of Colruyt, this is a part-time job;

-Organise employee training sessions;

-Budget for cycling-related costs;

-Allocate sufficient time to the project (in the case of Colruyt, two years were required to get the initiative up and running, although the firm had already been quite active in terms of CSR issues).

The major difficulties in implementing such a project arise primarily from a lack of leadership. Indeed, travel plans can only be successful if they are taken up by internal stakeholders who will steadily monitor them and maintain momentum (e.g., informing new employees, evaluating the program, motivating personnel) on an ongoing basis. The challenge is not so much resolving logistical and technical issues as it is raising awareness and promoting involvement among employees by presenting alternative modes of transport in a positive light.