Active friendly workplace ideas
Encouraging your employees to walk or cycle to work is a win-win-win workplace policy. It’s great for productivity, great for your bank balance and great for your image. Healthy, active employees take fewer sick days. They are more likely to arrive on time as they avoid getting snarled in traffic congestion and are more likely to be alert when they get to you. Bike parking is a fraction of the cost of car parking and by providing a company bike fleet, you’ll save in fuel and maintenance costs. Of course, you don’t need any parking at all for employees who walk to work. Promoting sustainable transport is also a great look for an organisation. So become an active friendly workplace today – your employees will thank you for it!
Top 5 tips:
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Provide changing and showering facilities and lockers at your workplace
Bike racks at NZ Post
- Provide bike parking – secure facilities like a bike cage are recommended (One shopping centre got 52 bike parks for the price of two car parks!)
- Get your workplace involved with Walk to Work day and Bike to Work day. Hold your own events within the workplace
- Provide incentives for those who walk or cycle to work
- Replace some of your company cars with company bicycles that can be used for short trips during the day
Pedal power takes off at NIWA
A recent survey has found that increasing numbers of staff at Greta Point’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) are cycling to and from work.
NIWA scientist and workplace travel plan coordinator Sarah Bury said the survey showed that 20 percent of the workforce (44 staff), rode to and from work each day and that a significant number of other staff would seriously consider biking to work in the future. NIWA recently took part in the nationally co-ordinated Bikewise event winning the Wellington/Wairarapa (100-499 employee) category with 44% (113 staff) participation.
“There has always been a hard core of cyclists but over the last two years or so it has definitely increased. NIWA management have doubled the size of our bike sheds over the last year and we are nearing full capacity again. ”
She says there are various reasons that NIWA has such a relatively high proportion of cyclists. “Most people who work for NIWA have a strong personal commitment to sustainability and that’s reflected in the nature of our work as an environmental science organisation. People here also seem to be generally aware of the importance of health and fitness. And this is an awkward location for people to take public transport to and from, so that’s another incentive to ride to work.”
Greater Wellington is helping Sarah and other NIWA staff to develop a workplace travel plan, to encourage more staff to make sustainable transport choices. Sarah says the desire for such a plan came from both staff at the grass roots and the board and senior management wanting to make a difference and reduce their carbon footprint.
Greater Wellington’s sustainable transport planner, Claire Pascoe, says workplace travel plans help people think about using other means of transport, than a car, for getting to and from work. “In these times of rising petrol prices, a lot more people are seriously considering alternative means of transport. The great thing about a plan is that it aims to give people choices and meet their needs at the same time. For example, many working parents would prefer to leave their car at home and take public transport or walk or bike to work, but then what do they do if there’s an emergency with their children? A workplace travel plan puts things in place, like access to taxis or a company car in such cases, so people can make sustainable choices and have peace of mind at the same time.”
Claire says other benefits of a workplace travel plan include increased health and wellbeing; improved workplace facilities for showering and cycle storage; more productive use of car parking space and reduced car parking costs – for both employers and employees; and an enhanced corporate image.
Greater Wellington is currently working on travel plans with about 12 major workplaces in the Wellington and Hutt Valley.
Further activity friendly workplace resources:
Possible actions for your workplace travel plan
