News
WUR wins Car Sharing Award – in Category Employer
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, together with environmental organisation Natuur & Milieu, annually present Car-Sharing Awards to municipalities that have made an effort to stimulate car-sharing. Because car sharing can lead to lower emissions (especially if the cars used are electric) and fewer cars on the road. Employers have a great deal of influence on the mobility behaviour of employees and can introduce car sharing-concepts. This year was the first time a Car Sharing Award was presented to an employer. WUR was the first employer to receive this Award last week.
Susan Reedijk, contract manager for Mobility as a Service at WUR until 1 June (Anne van Wijchen is the new contract manager from now on), was presented with the Car Sharing Award and explains: 'WUR aims to give sustainable travel an extra push by stimulating electric driving, cycling and the use of public transportation. This includes shared vehicles and efficient use of transportation for business purposes. We aim to reduce travel by plane and private car, especially those powered by fossil fuels. Therefore, we are glad that we received an Award for our sharing concept.
Good first steps
At WUR we have opted for an integrated strategy that is bigger than just introducing shared cars. An entire sharing platform has been set up for employees (and students for education-related travel). The jury also appreciated the fact that we give webinars to encourage people to drive electrically and actively explain electric driving. We see within WUR that the electric Amber/myWheels cars are being used frequently. In addition, developments continue. The next step is making shared bicycles available and making cars for freight transport more sustainable. Implementing such a mobility platform was and is a challenge and is sometimes accompanied by some difficulties in implementation. But this Award shows that we have taken good first steps. As far as we are concerned, this is an encouragement to continue”.
The municipalities of Amsterdam, Groningen and Eemsdelta won prizes in the category of large and smaller municipalities. Zeist received the prize for the best neighbourhood initiative.