Companies around the world, from Sweden’s Inkga Group (the holding company for the IKEA retail chain) to Clif Bar (with operations in the Bay Area and Twin Falls, Idaho) are developing sustainable mobility offerings for employees. These programs can include an array of services, from on-campus EV chargers, access to carpooling programs, financial incentives for buying bikes, e-bikes and EVs, and — for the lucky few — rides to and from work in electric buses.

For most companies, tackling the carbon emissions associated with employee travel is a big part of the decision to offer these perks. For Inkga Group, 15 percent of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, a combination of employee and customer travel as well as goods delivery. IKEA is developing plans to halve its emissions from customer and employee travel, and is piloting a program to better help its 160,000 coworkers carpool together.

But attracting and retaining employees remains a solid byproduct of overarching corporate sustainability goals. "A significant part of our employees are under 25, and we want to attract the best talent on the market. So we need to figure out how to get people to us," said IKEA Head of Sustainability Angela Hultberg at VERGE 20.

Another driving force behind the growth in corporate sustainable mobility programs is evolving consumer and political sentiment. Most Americans agree that global warming is happening, and the Biden administration is touting the most ambitious climate agenda in American history. Transportation emissions are the single largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, and American cities, and some states such as California, are making big moves, including phasing out or banning fossil-fuel vehicles altogether.

Read the full article about sustainable mobility by Katie Fehrenbacher at GreenBiz.