How Voi contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals – SDG 13: Climate Action

Climate change is arguably the biggest challenge facing humanity today and tackling it is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These goals set the blueprint for a sustainable planet by 2030. So, what are we doing to contribute to meeting the Climate Action goal?

Shared micro-mobility is a climate solution when it replaces cars and increases the use of public transportation! We are fully committed to the 15-min city movement and supporting communities in reclaiming public space from cars. Our service is carbon neutral and using it allows people to reduce their mobility’s carbon footprint.

At Voi, we have a science-based climate action plan to address our own emissions that is rooted in a comprehensive life-cycle assessment of our service. Our company emission reduction targets have been validated by the Science-Based Target initiative, and are in line with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree pathway. 

What we have done so far: 

Our Climate Action Plan has enabled us to reduce our overall emissions by up to 85% in certain cities since 2019. We’ve focused primarily on three impact areas:

1. Durable vehicles: We have been able to more than double our vehicle’s lifespan to about 5 years through improved design as well as robust and data-driven repairs. We also prevent scooters from falling into bodies of water and we retrieve them when they do. 
2. Net-zero operations: We want to see a transition to electric mobility. We are supporters and initiators of the World Economic Forum’s Zero Emission Urban Fleet and have electrified all of our fleet operations in Norway and Denmark, as well as many in Sweden, UK and Switzerland. Our service is powered by renewable energy.
3. Zero-waste and circularity: We are working to reduce waste and packaging materials. We reuse spare parts and have given over 80% of decommissioned scooters a second life through our adoption program. We have co-initiated and signed an industry-wide sustainability pledge to never scrap scooters. 
4. Car replacement. Our average car replacement rate is 16% in 2020, it’s as high as 31% in the UK.

Our targets:

We are all on a journey to address climate change, and minimise its impacts on our planet. As a company we aim to do our part by eliminating all the emissions we cause and help others do theirs by providing a carbon-neutral mobility service that is accessible to everyone. We plan to achieve this by reaching the following milestones:

1. Electrification: Full electrification of our service in all cities by 2022
2. Clean batteries: By 2022, we aim to cut emissions from battery cell production emissions by 30% by developing a battery pack with European producers using renewable energy and recycled materials (SDG 9.1, 9.4, 9.4.1) 
3. Circularity: Ensuring second-life applications as energy storage for all decommissioned batteries that are still safe to use by 2022
4. Car replacement: Increase car-replacement rate to 30% Voi wide by 2025 by designing a service for sustainable adoption. 
5. Climate awareness: raise awareness amongst users about the impact of climate change and our mobility habits (SDG 13.3) 
6. Climate forests. In Norway, we have launched a climate compensatory measure with TreFadder, where we offset our employee emissions by planting a Voi climate forest. We plan to plant 25 hectares by 2025. 

Did you know?

If you want to find out more about all our work with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, take a look back at our 2019 Sustainability Statement when we began aligning to the goals. We’ve come a long way but there’s so much more to do. 

This blog post is part of a series on how we work with nine of the 17 sustainable development goals. You can find the other blog posts in the series here:

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 9: Sustainable Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals