Let’s make the return to work a green one

The road to a ‘green’ recovery

From this month we see more of Milton Keynes restart –  schools return and with the Furlough scheme to end in October and Government advice to ‘go back to work if you can’.  This gives employers more discretion about planning the return of their workforce.  Whilst social distancing measures are still in place it may be that staff have more flexibility around how and when they can go into the office, or you may have employees restarting after being on furlough.

Over lockdown, cycling and walking has seen a massive uplift, with the government reporting that despite fewer people travelling there has been around a 100% increase in weekday cycling, increasing on weekends to 200%.  Along with the health benefits of supporting cycling and walking to work – healthier workforce, happier, less sick days – and better chance of fighting off infection, there has never been a better time to build on this positive shift!

Below are a range of helpful initiatives, these can give employees the tools and knowledge to choose a more sustainable mode of transport to get back to work and ensure a restart to a ‘green’ normal.  These also count as travel initiatives towards your Modeshift STARS travel plan.

Love to Ride

Cycle September is a global competition running throughout the month of September. It is free for companies and their employees to register! Your employees will be able to earn points by riding and encouraging others to ride too. Your company will be placed on organisational leaderboards in Milton Keynes, with employees on local and international leaderboards. There are competitions running alongside with money off retailers in Milton Keynes just for logging rides! Find out more.

E-cargo Bikes

We have an exciting new E-cargo bike scheme coming  to support local businesses. The fleet will be made up of 13 bikes and will be available to businesses to loan at a heavily reduced rate on both a short term and long-term basis. The eCargo bikes can carry up to 630 litres and can look to replace some car or van local journeys. Your deliveries may be quicker by cutting out traffic, save money on parking charges; fuel; vehicle cost and maintenance, helps the environment, whilst staff are happier and healthier. If your company is interested in registering to lease, sign up here.

Dr Bike

With the government Fix your Bike Voucher Scheme crashing minutes after launching there is clearly a demand to repair bikes. Could it be your employees have old bikes in need of a little TLC? We can help your company organise a Dr Bike session, giving employees the opportunity to have their bike repaired. Interested? Contact us to find out more.

Cycle to Work Schemes

With an increase in bike sales nationwide, if employees don’t have a bike – or are maybe looking to buy a bike, you can support them by signing up to a salary sacrifice scheme provider.  Organisations can save 13.8% of the total value of salary sacrifice, not to mention the many benefits your employees will see from cycling to work!  This could be implemented as part of your employees’ benefits.

Liftshare Week

This years’s Liftshare week runs from 5th-11th October.  As a company you could promote the Milton Keynes area wide platform to allow employees to explore as an alternative mode to get to work.  Liftshare have released new guidance on commuting in response to COVID-19.

National Campaigns

Each year there are various national campaign days or weeks which are focused around an active, sustainable mode of travel. If your company promotes these it counts towards your accreditation. This could be putting up posters, sending out emails with information, or running events alongside them!  To keep up to date on campaigns we are supporting visit our events page.

All of these initiatives count towards Modeshift STARS acceditation and develop your travel plan.  Register to get started or contact us for more help to get started.