This year, European Mobility Week takes place September 16-21, raising awareness of the need for more sustainable mobility solutions in cities everywhere. The event is a chance for us all to reassess our own transport choices – and that’s exactly what Diehl Metering is doing with its employees.
Organized by the European Commission, European Mobility Week is often used by local authorities to try out new planning and infrastructure solutions, and to get citizen feedback on these initiatives. One of the highlights of the program is the popular Car-Free Day, when motorists are prohibited from using their vehicles within city limits. This year, capitals such as Paris and Brussels are declaring themselves a car-free zone on September 18.
While European Mobility Week is essential for raising awareness of alternative mobility, the actions it promotes need to be adopted in the long term if we are to make permanent change. We can all contribute by using more eco-friendly modes of transport. At Diehl Metering, we are actively looking at how we can make this happen for our employees.
As a signatory of the UN’s Global Compact, we are constantly investigating new ways to meet our sustainability goals. This includes identifying our greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this, we have initiated a program to measure our carbon footprint by gathering data on both our direct emissions (factories, company vehicles) and indirect emissions (materials, energy, recycling, transport, etc.). Among these indirect emissions is the daily commute of our employees. That’s why we recently conducted a survey of our employees to find out how they get to work, and how many kilometres they travel.
Over the 2 weeks of the survey, 73% of our employees took part. The key findings? On average, our people travel 20km between the home and their place of work. In Germany, a successful remote working policy means that staff spend the fewest days in the office – and therefore commute less frequently than their colleagues. But 77% of employees worldwide still travel in private vehicles.
Looking ahead, our objective is to get to know more about our own practices so we can lead our community toward more sustainable choices. The results show that there is room for improvement. By prioritizing public transport, carpooling and adapting our work practices (balancing home-office/onsite), we can all make a difference to reducing greenhouse gases and shaping a more sustainable future.