At Materialise, we’re always looking for new ways to make our mission statement a reality. So in the interest of creating a better and healthier world, we joined Car-Free Day! From 16-22 September, the “Week van de Mobiliteit” or, Mobility Week, takes place in Belgium. It’s an entire week filled with events and initiatives aimed at encouraging environmentally friendly travel – and we’re proud to say we took part.
Our headquarters joined Car-Free Day, which meant that everyone tried to get to work in the greenest way possible. And we weren’t alone – the neighboring Siemens office joined as well in some friendly competition. The company with the highest amount of “green kilometers” (meaning the total sum of how far all employees travelled to get to work without using their car) would win the bet. And the prize? The losers would donate money to the winning company’s charitable project.
So how did we do? We were allowed to use any methods of transportation besides taking the car (with the exception of carpooling of course!) – taking public transport, cycling, walking, rollerskating; the more creative the better. Here are some fun statistics from the day itself:
- 140 employees biked a total of 3,183 km (with an average of 22km per person)
- 3,179km were travelled with public transport
- 1,793km were travelled by carpooling
- 170km were travelled using other methods of transportation
- We travelled a total of 8,325 green kilometers!
We also invited a bicycle repairman to come and check everyone’s bikes, and held a selfie competition during the day. The most original selfie taker won the opportunity to test drive an electric car for a week – and hopefully, they’ll enjoy the experience so much they’ll consider switching to electric for good!
Finally, at the end of the day, the results were in. And unbelievably, Siemens and Materialise were tied! So everyone was a winner on Car-Free Day – and the charities tied to each company will receive the prize money, meaning we will actually be helping more people than if one company had won.