Would you like to go on holiday by train to reduce your ecological footprint? More and more people have that intention, noted lawyer Savannah Koomen. But it is not always easy: train journeys are often more expensive than airline tickets and you are often on the road longer. Unnecessary barriers, Koomen thought. She drew up ‘the Green Employment Agreement’, an employment contract that rewards sustainable choices. For a cycling or train holiday you will receive two extra vacation days and 0.2 percent more holiday pay. Koomen: “A better rail network would of course also help, but I can’t build that.”
The Green Employment Agreement is a way for employers to encourage sustainable choices among their staff. The agreement is free to use and has since been downloaded about a hundred times. There are more such initiatives. With Trappers, founded about 25 years ago, employees can save points, or ‘trappers’, by coming to the office by bicycle. They can exchange those points in the Trappers webshop. The commuter bicycle ride is registered via a chip on the bicycle and a receiver at the bicycle shed at work.
High-tech company ASML started Trappers in 2011, says head of Real Estate Teun Warthenbergh, who is involved in sustainability within the company. “There is now a large bicyclecommunity arise within our company. You get mutual competition among fanatical colleagues, who want to pedal as many kilometers as possible.”
Ellen Walet of the Trappers company has also noticed this, who says that ‘challenges’ are often held in the workplace. “We would prefer everyone to cycle to work, but that is of course a utopia. If people who previously went by car five times a week now cycle twice a week, that is already a gain.” Trappers has approximately 40 employers as customers and more than 7,000 cycling participants.
ASML (more than 31,000 employees) wants one third of the staff to come to the office in Veldhoven by bicycle, one third by public transport and one third by car. The company hopes to achieve this through financial incentives: higher mileage allowances for bicycles and free public transport, for example. “If we succeed in convincing 5,000 employees to leave the car at home, and we assume ten to twenty kilometers commuting, we will save 30 million kilometers by car per year. This contributes enormously to the reduction of nitrogen emissions.”
Admittedly, Warthenbergh says: initiatives to get staff out of the car started at ASML out of necessity, not sustainability. “The traffic jam became untenable. But eventually it grew into something healthier for people and better for the world. We also noticed that this is important for our staff. The younger generation, in particular, no longer necessarily need a car in front of the door.”
In addition to Trappers, ASML uses the Turnn travel planner, an app that calculates both the travel time and the environmental impact of various routes. The most sustainable route will be at the top.
Inequality
It also happens that staff live far from public transport or too far away to cycle. Aren’t advantages for cyclists or users of public transport unfair? “There are people who feel that way,” Warthenbergh says. But you can’t always make everyone happy. Of course there are places where you really depend on the car, but for many people it’s more convenience. Or a sense of freedom they think they miss without the car. We want to encourage people to consciously look for alternatives.”
Lawyer Koomen is also sometimes criticized for the benefits for cyclists in the Green Employment Agreement. “It does indeed create a certain inequality. But this is a standard agreement, employees and employers are free to adjust the agreements. If someone lives in a remote area or has family outside Europe, the provisions on commuting or flying holidays can be reconsidered together.” At the same time, says Koomen, it must be accepted that a sustainable policy sometimes has consequences that are not beneficial to everyone.
Trees have a prominent place in the Green Employment Agreement: they are planted when the salary is transferred to a sustainable bank, and they are worked overtime for every hour. “The latter is good for many jobs.”
There is no overtime culture at the Bringer transport platform, says HR manager Liza de Jong. So few trees will grow out of it. Still, she hopes to make significant environmental gains with the Green Labor Agreement, which the company will implement within a few months. „We have set the goal for ourselves as a company before 2025 to achieve a CO2– achieve a reduction of twenty tons.”
Bringer is a young company focused on sustainability, says De Jong. “If you buy a bank, our affiliated couriers will bring it to you. Our algorithm ensures that they do not return with an empty bus on the way back, but are offered new jobs on the route.” This makes the Green Employment Agreement a good fit for the company, but its use also stems from a need among the staff. De Jong: “As a Christmas present, everyone received a guide to sustainable travel from National Geographic. Very nice, many people said, but such a train journey does cost extra vacation days.”
in the collective agreement
In the beginning, sustainable start-ups such as Brenger took over Koomen’s employment contract. Investment funds, a municipality and a university are now also users. “My goal is for this to become the standard agreement.”
When does she expect that wish to come true? “Let me put it this way: in three years it should be like this. There are a number of collective bargaining agreements where this is already the subject of discussion. That is a step in the right direction.” A company can distinguish itself as an attractive employer with the contract, Koomen thinks. “Employers have to want this because employees want it.”
That’s how it worked at ASML, Warthenbergh says. “Our staff keeps us sharp. Solicited and unsolicited, they come up with sustainability advice. There is clearly a need for it. It is our job as an employer to provide that.”
The company can really use the help of the municipality and other authorities in this regard. “Public transport in this region is not great. You don’t have that problem in Amsterdam or Rotterdam. It is time that the threshold of waiting half an hour for the bus disappears, especially in important economic regions such as Brainport.”
At the end of last year, ASML opened a parking lot in Eersel for staff who still have to come by car. The last part can be covered with an electric bicycle or an electric bus from ASML.
It should ensure less traffic jams in the region. “But then we also have to prevent other people from taking up the space that we give up. Then we won’t get anywhere with it. That is why I would like to call on all other companies and the government to do the same. Whether it’s for healthier staff, a better world or attractive employership: join us.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of March 25, 2022