My name is Pia, I’m 23 years old. I live in Lille and work in Marly, in Lyreco’s headquarters. In this short blogpost, I am going to tell you my experience with mobility and how my personal habits and aspirations reflect some global trends of the future of work.
I am sensitive to my carbon footprint, and I’ve realized that one of my main sources of carbon is my mobility as I work 55 km away from my home. I work remotely twice a week, even more with the global pandemic (#LiquidWork): remote working saves 1h30 of my daytime that I can dedicate to sports and leisure activities (#WorkWell), while saving approximately 20 kg of CO2 emissions roundtrip (#OnAMission)!
Also, I don’t want to own a car. It’s polluting, its maintenance is time and money consuming, I don’t want to have my mind cluttered up with insurance fee, filling gas, etc. I would rather rent a car or use carpooling for short trips and commuting to work – using rather than owning (#LessIsMore).
I wouldn’t claim that everyone has the same habits and aspirations as me but in overall, we can state commuting practices are drastically changing, and Covid pandemic resulted in the acceleration of this trend. According to an online survey done during lockdown, 29% of French people said they would opt for sustainable transportation after lockdown. Indeed, sales of bicycles and e-bikes have skyrocketed: +230 % sales in one year for Cowboy, an e-bike startup (Belgium, $19.5M raised), + 117% sales of new bicycles in France between May and June 2020.
This change in commuting practices is a real challenge for companies as employees commuting is accountable for significant carbon footprint. In the transportation sector, private road vehicles are accountable for more than 50% of GHG emissions (EEA, 2018). In the case of Lyreco’s HQ, if all the 800 employees came to work with individual car, CO2 emissions would be approximately 3,4 t per day (QSS Lyreco France, 2020)!
So what for Lyreco?
How can we take advantage of the opportunity offered by the growth of the gentle mobility market? Could we develop new offers to meet the new needs of our clients (fleet management, charging station at work, storage, safety gear, changing facilities, etc.)?
How can we improve our own employees' mobility to be an example for our customers and gain credibility?
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