A bicycle-friendly workplace is great for companies and their employees. Cycling can contribute to the success of a business or organisation and supporting employees getting to work by cycling is a worthwhile investment.

Based on those findings and on the success of the Bike2Work project, organisations from Denmark, Austria, United Kingdom, Germany, Slovenia, Malta, Bulgaria, France, Croatia, Romania, Italy and the Netherlands designed and implemented a European certification framework for Cycle Friendly Employers (CFE). The framework establishes a European standard for cycle friendly companies and to help them to improve the situation for employees that cycle to work. The aim is to facilitate, improve and standardise the certification process for employers at European level.

In December 2017, those organisations decided to establish the CFE Consortium in order to implement the CFE Certification Framework. The participation to the CFE Consortium is now open to other countries for the period 2018-2020: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Why should a company get certificated? Several benefits can come from getting a CFE certification. Certification is intended to help European companies improve the situation for employees that cycle to work and to offer acknowledgement and reward for their efforts. A bicycle-friendly workplace is great for companies and their employees. Cycling can contribute to the success of a business or organisation and supporting employees getting to work by cycling is a worthwhile investment. Studies show how physical activity and air quality have a big impact on personal well-being and environment, but also companies benefit of them: healthy employees are more productive and the ones who commute by bike are on time, more alert and less prone to stress.

How to get the CFE certification? Companies can express interest and test their “cycle-friendliness” through the self-assessment tool available on the CFE website. Each bicycle-friendly measure, grouped into 6 action fields, has a corresponding number of points, depending on implementation effort, cost and employees’ acceptance. A certain number of points must be achieved per action field in order to be eligible for the certification process. 

As part of the CFE certification process, employers can also request advice from their respective national contact point (NCP) or a designated consultant. National contact points coordinate the CFE certification process in case that a company registers for an on-site audit.

Why should an organization implement the CFE certification framework at national level? Implementation of the CFE Certification Framework offers a clear opportunity to empower NGOs and cycling associations. The certification process will be managed by national coordinators with the support and guidance of the CFE Consortium. This is an exciting business opportunity for the next 3 years not to be missed! Seven ECF members are already part of the CFE Consortium.

The call for applicants 2018 is an open competition whose objective is to select one organization in each of the aforementioned countries that will:

• implement the CFE Certification Framework at national level;
• release the CFE certification to cycle-friendly companies;
• build a cycle-friendly employer culture at national level;
• promote the CFE Certification Framework;
• be part of a European CFE network.

The application package is available here.

Submission deadline is next 25^th February 2018.

Contacts:
Marco Ciarrocchi
m.ciarrocchi@ecf.com
Tel: +32 2 8084 798
Skype: marco_ecf