Cycle Friendly Employer Award

What is it?
Cycling Scotland’s Cycle Friendly Employer Award is run in conjunction with the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives .  The aim of the award is to give employers the incentive to achieve a nationally recognised award for promoting cycling in the workplace which will result in benefits for employers and staff alike.  The award also provides best practice guidance in relation to cycle commuting and can be used as a practical tool to implement cycle measures as part of a sustainable travel plan.

Who is it for?
The award is for any organisation in Scotland that would like to encourage their staff to cycle to work.  This could be for any number of reasons, such as to promote active travel with the aim of creating a healthier workforce, to support environmental policies or as part of a travel plan.

Employers are credited with an increasing accountability for the health of their workforce.  The financial burden to the NHS of illness and premature death relating to physical inactivity is estimated at around £1 billion per annum.  This does not take into account the cost to individual business of absenteeism, reduced productivity, increasing stress levels and an increase in avoidable work related ailments.  As levels of inactivity rise, employers can react by positively influencing significant numbers of people to incorporate appropriate physical activity in their lifestyles.  In doing this, they improve the physical and mental wellbeing of their staff, improve their profitability and protect the investment they make in their human resources.

Register
To register for the Cycle Friendly Employer Award and get started click here

Workplace Grant Awards
The Workplace Grants Awards have been developed specifically for organisation’s registered on the Cycle Friendly Employer Award scheme.  The purpose of providing these small grants (up to £2000) is to help organisations remove barriers they may have in encouraging cycling to work. 

The scheme will exclude large infrastructure grants and projects and focus more on initiatives which encourage and enable cycling to work.  The grant awards are open to all workplaces however, priority will be given to businesses of 250 employees or less.  Grants awarded will most likely include funding for staff cycle training, Cycle to Work scheme promotion, pool bikes, improvement’s to existing cycle parking etc.  Innovative ideas that will promote cycle commuting for all staff are encouraged.

Click here for more information and to download the applications forms.

Further info:

Benefits of the scheme

How to get started

Current Cycle Friendly Employers:

Gartnavel Hospital
Scottish Government
Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP 
Student Awards Agency Scotland  
University of Edinburgh 
SPT (Strathclyde Passenger Transport)

Sustrans   
City of Edinburgh Council 
East Dumbartonshire Council 

SESTran
Energy Saving Trust - Changeworks
South Ayrshire Council
Dumfries and Galloway College
Halcrow
University of Glasgow
SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority)