Companies are bound to leave some kind of carbon footprint. However, whilst many will look into reducing this through reducing the amount of energy the business itself expends, there is another great way to try and reduce that footprint, and one which will only serve to improve work rather than detract from it: encouraging staff to cycle to work.
By reducing the number of car parking spaces you are likely to need, you are limiting the costs to your business as you will either not have to use such large premises or will instead be able to simply sell your unused parking spaces for extra income. In turn, staff won’t have excuses such as they ‘couldn’t find a parking space’ for being late to work, and staff will almost certainly arrive at office awake, alive and raring to go rather than taking an hour or so to get going.
But how do you make it attractive for staff to cycle to work? Well the first step is most likely going to be investing in bicycle racks. Many people will shy away from cycling to work due to a lack of sufficient safe places to store their bikes but with the right racking or even lockers, this will suddenly no longer be a consideration.
Aside from cycle racks, investing in bikes for the staff (or buying in bulk so that you can offer staff bikes at much reduced prices) or running incentives or promotions may well be a great way to get your staff out of the car and onto their bikes. Such steps will also benefit the company by potentially bringing staff closer as it in most instances members of staff will choose to cycle to work together.
In short, such a change could help boost employee health and moral, increase productivity and let you do your part in cutting your carbon footprint without any detrimental effects to the way your company is run.