Over 300 companies in 12 European countries became cycle-friendly in 2015-2016, bringing over half a million commuters on their bicycles. And since today, the 20th of February, 2017 any of these companies, governmental or non-governmental organisations can get certified for being Cycling Friendly Employer (CFE)! ‘With our project partners we delivered this scheme that can now be easily adopted in all the EU Member States’ - said ECF Development Director, Kevin Mayne. The European employer certification scheme was launched today in the Permanent Representation of Malta to the EU during the closing conference of European Bike2Work project.

For the past two years, ECF together with other twelve project partners worked on Bike2Work project, funded by the European Union. The main objective of Bike2Work was to encourage a significant modal shift from motorized commuting to cycling. The project targeted both: employees and the change of their commuting habits through Bike2Work campaigns, as well as employers, convincing them to meet the needs of cyclists. As a result, diverse Bike2work campaigns were organised in participating countries, and results went far beyond impressive emissions savings (more than 20.000 tons of CO2 saved in one year!); across the board, employers endorsed bike to work schemes and commuters cycled to work more than 145 million kilometers - that is 3600 times around the Earth!

The final conference was attended by representatives of Romanian Telekom and Italian Decathlon who have both presented their experience with Bike2Work project, and the positive impact that the project brought to their companies: illness costs were reduced, employees became more productive, infrastructure costs were saved. ‘It is a win-win situation for both: an employer and the employees’ - added Paul Murphy, the Chairman of the European Union Cyclists’ Group. ‘The CFE certification is an exclusive EU-wide, harmonised, transparent and unbiased scheme which is also good for companies’ reputation’ - commented Sophia-Maria Antonulas, ADFC Senior Product Manager.

The next step is to proliferate these success stories around Europe with a European Cycling Strategy that will bring together best practices for European businesses. In addition, one harmonised European Strategy would provide common policy recommendations for all the Member States, encouraging national governments to take policy initiatives that favour cyclists (such as kilometric reimbursement recently adopted in French law). ‘Cycling greatly benefits employees and employers, but it also delivers on some of the main EU priorities’ - concluded ECF Policy Director, Ádám Bodor.

More pictures can be found here
Download final Bike2Work report: Boosting the European business sector: It starts with cycling