Quorum Business Park, which has 12 employer tenants and 3,500 workers, has introduced a discount and reward programme to encourage staff to cycle to work.
The Newcastle park includes organisations such as Balfour Beatty, Convergys, HM Revenue and Customs, IBM and Tesco Bank.
The programme, which is being trialled for six weeks through provider PleaseCycle, has seen 64 employees register and 43 log their mileage. In the first two weeks, the business park logged 2,500 miles and saved 750 tonnes of CO2.
Employees can claim rewards as they log miles cycled. For 30 miles, they receive a £10 voucher for the local bike shop. For 40 miles, they receive a free place on one of the park’s monthly social bike rides. For 50 miles, they get free fish and chips from a waterfront restaurant along the bike route in North Shields.
Laura Kerry, commuter centre manager at Quorum Business Park, said: “We always knew many employees here cycled, but this year there have been a lot more. Most of the employers in our park offer staff bikes-for-work schemes.”
Quorum also hosts a cycling group, holding an event every two months to discuss cycling issues and share new routes. The group was also used to communicate the PleaseCycle scheme. Other communications included details in the monthly newsletter and leaflets stuck to all parked bikes in the park.
“We have a sustainability strategy and this helps with that,” said Kerry.
Read more about bikes-for-work schemes
