Cycle to Work Day

By Michelle Charlesworth

Thursday 5th August is national cycle to work day. As part of our growing sustainability focus at Aspire, it is important for us to engage in these initiatives and we are keen to keep the spotlight on finding ways to reduce our carbon footprint. Our One Planet Living (OPL) sustainability Action Plan is under review, and reducing the need to travel and encouraging walking, cycling and using low carbon transport is key to delivering on the OPL Principle 7 ‘Travel and Transport’. 

In addition to encouraging more cycling, working from home also supports this principle - as many of our employees are not driving in to work, the Aspire carbon footprint has reduced dramatically since the onset of the pandemic. At Aspire we are continuing to encourage employees to work from home if it makes sense to do so, including formally adopting a ‘hybrid working’ flexible policy, and this is working well.

In response to this year’s Cycle to Work campaign we are making plans to provide secure bicycle parking and shelter for employees’ and visitor cycles at our offices in Oxford City. We are also hoping to expand upon our partnership with the co-op Broken Spoke, who share our St Thomas School premises, to provide maintenance and refurbishment services for our bank of shared employee bicycles. 

There are many ways to get involved in the national campaign, and we would encourage you to take part by visiting Cycle to Work - where you can sign up and take the challenge.