How Scottish businesses are rethinking the commute

Businesses throughout Scotland are leading the way in reducing commuter emissions, thanks to the free support available from Travelknowhow Scotland to encourage more active and sustainable travel choices.

Rethinking the commute and other travel in the workplace is crucial for businesses who are committed to achieving Scotland’s net zero targets. Scope 3 emissions, which typically account for more than 70 percent of a business’s carbon footprint, can often be challenging to address, but the employee commute is one indirect source of emissions that businesses can calculate and control.

Working in collaboration with each of Scotland’s Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs),Travelknowhow Scotland is helping businesses in each of the 7 RTP regions to better understand their current travel patterns and develop bespoke measures to increase the use of active and sustainable transport methods.

ACS Clothing

Travelknowhow Scotland supported ACS Clothing through the provision of analysis to understand current staff travel patterns and develop an Active and SustainableTravel Plan strategy to tie in with its net-zero emissions by 2025 ambitions.

MichaelCusack, Head of Sustainability & Business Transformation at ACS Clothing, said:

"TravelknowhowScotland has been a great support to us in reducing the carbon footprint of our staff's commute to and from work. They have introduced free bus passes to our younger staff and Cycle to Work and EV Salary Sacrifice schemes amongst other initiatives. THKS have worked with our staff to better understand their carbon footprint and explored ways they can reduce their footprint. THKS’s work has brought about changes in our employees’ commuting behaviour shifting them towards sustainable mobility solutions with over 30% reduction in our carbon footprint from staff commute."

NHS Highland

Travelknowhow Scotland worked alongside NHS Highland and NHSS to develop an Active andSustainable Travel Action template that could be used in the first instance tooffer support to the Transition and Migration Group at Badenoch and Strathspey hospital and assist them with the completion of the template to meet their planning permission conditions.

Lizbeth Collie, Active Travel Officer with Sustrans / NHS Highland, said:

“Shona’s breadth of experience and engaging way of working really helped us focus on developing the active and sustainable travel plans for the two new hospitals.We started with her existing documentation on staff travel surveys and on travel plans, which was really useful as a prompt for discussion, and with her input we adapted it for our own circumstances. Her help with analysis of the staff travel survey results was very useful indeed. We’re making use of the materials developed at other sites, for example to support funding applications.”

MacIntyre Chocolate Systems

Travelknowhow Scotland helped MacIntyre Chocolate Systems to understand more about currentand anticipated travel patterns within the workforce following the pandemic and gauge the appetite for active and sustainable travel measures amongst theirworkforce.

Marc Couttie, Finance Manager at MacIntyre Chocolate Systems, said:

“The external support that Travelknowhow Scotland provided to develop and analyse the employee travel survey results and provide suggested travel planning measures was very useful indeed. TKHS were able to highlight key opportunities for us and suggest meaningful targets that provided us with a much-needed focus to drive forward key initiatives to encourage active and sustainable travel -we are already starting to see a shift in travel behaviour amongst members of the workforce which is really encouraging.”

These case studies represent just a handful of businesses in Scotland who recognise the importance of promoting active and sustainable travel in the workplace.Transport is Scotland’s biggest contributor to climate change and the country’s active travel vision is that by 2030 walking or cycling will be the most popular choice for shorter everyday journeys.

Travelknowhow Scotland’s mission is to provide businesses with the initial support they needto develop and implement meaningful travel plans. Its free support, delivered in partnership with each RTP, is available to all businesses in Scotland.

To find out more about Travelknowhow Scotland’s free travel planning support and consultancy time, contact info@travelknowhowscotland.co.uk or visit https://www.travelknowhowscotland.co.uk/services/consultancy-time.

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