SWECO scoops Scotland Excel Award for Edinburgh Workplace Travel Planning Programme
Engineering, environment and design consultancy firm Sweco has been recognised for developing a workplace travel planning programme for Edinburgh at this year’s Scotland Excel Supplier Excellence Awards.
The business was named winner in the ‘Partnership Working’ category, seeing off stiff competition from four other shortlisted organisations.
The behaviour change project, developed in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council, has engaged with 35 organisations over 60 locations across the city to encourage their employees to reduce their car use in favour of walking, cycling and using public transport.
Sweco delivered a range of initiatives, including sustainable travel roadshows, bike maintenance classes to help employees get bikes back on the road, walking and cycling challenges and personal travel planning programmes to more than 10,000 people. Feedback has shown that over 70 per cent of respondents were inspired to review their travel planning activity as a result.
The project forms part of the Scottish Government’s ‘Smarter Choices, Smarter Places’ programme. The winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow on Tuesday 20th February.
Ruth Mustard, Associate and project leader, Sweco UK, said “We are passionate about encouraging more people across Scotland and the UK to walk, cycle or use public transport to get to work every day. This achievement is testament to the success of our partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and we look forward to continuing the engagement with organisations across a range of sectors in the city.”
Transport and Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Macinnes, said: “This is an excellent example of successful partnership working, encouraging people to think about their transport choices when commuting to work. As a Council we are committed to increasing the use of sustainable travel, and by collaborating with Sweco we are making steps towards this.”
The awards celebrate suppliers to Scotland Excel, an organisation set up to help Scottish local authorities access expertise and help procurement across a range of sectors. It recognises partners who deliver outstanding service and innovation within key public services.
Sweco was awarded a place on Scotland Excel’s engineering and technical framework in February 2017, with the contract worth £68 million across four years. The business supports local authorities on a range of projects including transport, infrastructure and environmental engineering.
Sweco consults on major projects nationwide via its network of 15 regional offices in the UK and Ireland, with recent work including the Queensferry Crossing and the Bloomberg headquarters in London, the world’s most sustainable building.
