Cut CO2 and improve health and productivity with sustainable commuting

Sustainable commuting is set to rise up corporate agendas as the CO2 emissions produced from staff travelling to and from work will need to be recorded under Scope 3 emissions reporting.

But aside from meeting those requirements, encouraging employees to increase their physical activity by walking or cycling on their commute also has much wider benefits.

For the employer, the improved physical and mental well-being of employees leads to fewer sick days and greater productivity, while employees also benefit from better health and a decreased risk of developing chronic diseases, says Dr Matt Sawyer, director at SEE Sustainability.

“There is a distinction between exercise and physical activity,” he adds. “With exercise, we often think we need to get some special clothes or go to a special building such as a gym or football pitch to do it, and we often see it as a sort of punishment or an atonement for our indulgence.

“But physical activity doesn’t need any of those things. It’s about moving, it’s about dancing, it’s about gardening, it’s about doing all sorts of things that are just being physically active.

“I use a standing desk and using that I actually get in at least 250 steps every hour, and that’s just by standing rather than sitting. So you don’t have to go do special places to do these things.”

However, while it may not be as strenuous as exercise, the health benefits of physical activity is well documented.