Absolutely fascinating article from Adam Mitchell over on the Pentland blog.
Adam decided he would cycle from Lancaster to a conference in the Netherlands:
On 25 June, I set out from Lancaster University Management School, bound for Nyenrode Business Universiteit, host of the 2022 EFMD Marcom, External & Alumni Relations Conference. I had a self-imposed challenge of travelling in a way that minimised my environmental impact. The next day, I arrived in Breukelen, having ridden 200 miles and taken an overnight ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. Three days later, I’d reverse the route, arriving in Lancaster on 30 June, with another 200 miles in the legs and a carbon impact, estimated by the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, 93% lower than had I flown.
93% lower carbon emissions is impressive. Quite some feat! But, as Adam well knows, cycling 200 miles to a business conference is something only a tiny number of people could possibly do.
That, however, is not his point. Adam set himself a challenge, and he learned a lot along the way.
Clearly what I did is not realistic and my ‘commute’ was an extreme one, designed to draw attention to an extremely important topic for all businesses and organisations. However, I do think that cycling can play a part, especially if staff could be incentivised to make short journeys by bike.
What lessons can we learn from his big, cycling adventure? Adam says:
A challenge I gave to fellow delegates was that if each of them undertook just one small journey per week using a bike (or walking) instead of using a car, the cumulative impact would soon far exceed my return trip. Indeed, I know this first hand, where over the course of the last seven years of working in Lancaster, I have commuted to and from home more than 500 times, saving 13,000 miles of driving.
The journey to #netzero is going to have to be a combination of big Governmental policy shifts and incremental, everyday reductions. As Adam argues, just one journey a week when we don't use the car is a good start. This is one of those times when sweating the small stuff really is part of the bigger solution.
So, what can your business do today without having to cycle all the way to Holland!?