Erasmus MC has been discouraging the use of cars and encouraging cycling to work for a number of years. The well-being of employees and the environment are receiving increasing attention. New bike parking facilities now offer a total of 4500 bike parking spaces to employees, students and visitors close to building entrances. Options for showering and changing clothes are a staple, while there is a full-time bicycle repairer and workshop, and bike scheme in place.
Joke Boonstra, member of the Board of Directors of Erasmus MC is delighted with the certificate: “We regard the Golden Certificate as a wonderful crown on all the work to promote the bicycle. We do this on the one hand to reduce car use and on the other hand to promote the vitality of the employee. We are committed to sustainability.”
Bicycle parts manufacturer Spanninga in Joure, regularly organizes company outings on bicycles, holds meetings where employees are informed about the benefits of cycling, a Bicycle Ambassador is present and the company facilitates good, covered bicycle parking with repair options.
"We are very honored to receive this recognition," says Feike Spanninga. “After completing the checklist, it turned out that we received a silver certification. Very beautiful! The wish is of course to grow into gold. We will work hard on this in the coming years. "
Erasmus MC and Spanninga are joining an ever-growing group of Cycle-Friendly Employers in the Netherlands. Among them, the province of South Holland, the Rivierenland Water Board and Eindhoven University of Technology. [based on original article in Dutch here]
Simone Vonken, policy officer of Eindhoven University of Technology, talks about their motivation and how they put their cyclists in the limelight. “The broader question is: how can you let employees travel in a sustainable way? This broader issue is one of the topics that our university is tackling: smart mobility. Many companies use one of these four spearheads to do something with cycling, namely vitality, attractive employment practices, accessibility or sustainability. For us, sustainability and accessibility were the biggest drivers for getting started with mobility. In recent years we have tried to encourage the use of bicycles and public transport. The university has invested heavily in this. The certificate for bicycle-friendly company is the confirmation that our efforts in recent years have really delivered something.” [Full interview in Dutch here].
The certification scheme is currently implemented in 14 countries around Europe. Fietsersbond Netherlands is the National Contact Point for CFE-certification in the Netherlands. More on the Certification in the Netherlands here. More on the Cycle-Friendly Employers Certification here.