60 Kapitel Management approaches Mobilit y Blum offers employees incentives to switch to an environmentally - friendly alternative for their commute. If you were to orbit the ear th three and a half times, that would be the same total distance travelled each day by our employees at Blum Austria – around 140,000 kilometres. As par t of our sustainabilit y commitment, we at Blum are asking ourselves how we can persuade our employees to opt for a greener alternative to driving. To do this, we have thoroughly analysed our employees’ situation when it comes to travelling sustainably, looking at factors like how many employees live within cycling distance or have access to a bus or train route. This way, we can identif y the areas with the greatest potential for improvement, which gives us a good star ting point. An acces - sibilit y analysis by the Vorarlberg Energy Institute demonstrated that 60 % of our employees meet these criteria. On average, 38 % currently use an environmentally - friendly means of commuting, which equates to 2500 of the 7000 employees in Austria. Blum has put together a 20- strong team from different depar tments with the task of developing a mobilit y concept combining a series of interlinking measures. The idea is to offer employees a basic package for each mode of transpor t in order to encourage them to travel to their workplace sustainably. For example, this may comprise financial suppor t with the purchase of a high-qualit y bicycle or an annual ticket for public transpor t. These basic packages are integrated into a reward system that then incentives employees to actually take advantage of them for their daily commute to work. This “Ecopoints” system will be presented in the next ar ticle. As par t of the Jobrad campaign, employees can buy a bicycle or e -bike from selected par tners at an affordable price, as well as benefiting from national subsidies. Anyone who commutes to work by public transpor t or bike on at least four days of the week, and does not use the company car park, also receives a subsidy from the company. This makes cycling even more Travelling to work by bus or bike Blum is serious about mobilit y and therefore established the post of Mobilit y Officer in 2019. The Mobilit y Officer is suppor ted by a project team from various depar tments, who work together with her to develop, monitor and improve our mobilit y concept . In addition to sur veying what ’s happening now, the team develops realistic goals for climate - friendly employee mobilit y. Their tasks also include evaluating the effectiveness of the measures currently in place. For example, the mobilit y concept is continuously reviewed by means of monthly vehicle counts and additional ad hoc samples. This allows us to assess whether our strategy for environmentally - friendly mobilit y is really working. appealing. Alternatively, employees can significantly reduce their ecological footprint by travelling to work by public transpor t. In return, Blum will cover the costs of a “ VMOBIL ma ximo” climate ticket, which is valid throughout the entire federal state of Vorarlberg. With the Vorarlberg family pass, the whole family can even travel by bus and train for free. In addition, the sites themselves will be upgraded to accommodate the additional influx of cyclists, with more bike racks and bigger changing rooms and showers, as well as measures to raise awareness. This internal initiative is also being supplemented through collaboration with external par tners and local policies to promote the expansion of the cycle and public transpor t net works. Both the bicycles and public transpor t tickets can – and should – also be used by employees privately, in order to encourage sustainable travel out - side of the work context, too. And we aren’ t the only advocates for these ideas: our mobilit y concept even won the overall prize at the Verkehrsclub Österreich’s 2022 Mobilit y Awards, the slogan of which roughly translates as “Let ’s turn transpor t around”.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy