Ever wonder just how much difference you’re making commuting by bike? Well, fitness tracking giant, Strava, has announced they are offering a new tool focusing on carbon savings. Started on August 2nd, when you tag your activities (cycling, running, walking, or using an eBike) as commutes on the mobile app or the web, you’ll be able to see your estimated carbon savings.
Strava is hoping that this new feature will help advance carbon savings and encourage more environmentally friendly modes of transportation. A recent study stated that 72% of companies have mandated employees to return to the office. You mix that with the global fuel and cost of living crisis, and we are seeing an influx of commuting by bike and foot.
Through this update, which displays the carbon saved figure on user activities that are marked as “commute”, Strava hopes to motivate its over 100 million users to choose less carbon-intensive means of commuting.
Brain Bell, Stava’s VP of Global Communications and Social Impact had this to say:
“At Strava we are proud to consistently provide our community with product features and updates that motivate them to be more active. The new feature unlocks a universal action that anyone on Strava can be part of, and our hope is that when armed with the power to choose between a less eco-friendly form of commuting versus a more human-powered approach – they bias towards the more sustainable option. By providing more visibility on carbon savings, we look to inspire individual action towards a common goal of reducing carbon emissions globally“.
Stava says that the new feature supports their ongoing efforts to improve infrastructure investment for greater active transportation access. They have been sharing de-identified, aggregated activity data insights on commuting trends to city planners for free, doing so through Stava’s proprietary web platform, Metro, which is available to qualifying partner organizations.
Check out Strava’s community hub here or at the link below.
