Good morning!!
Welcome to a special edition of the new UrbanTech. You’re receiving this note because you signed up to be a part of our product beta group or are an original UT subscriber.
One of the things we are focusing heavily on leading into our full public launch in May: how are we going to start to cover news for our subscribers?!?
Well, today is the start of that endeavor, so welcome to the UrbanTech News Bulletins,
John
Join UT Premium Today and save 20%
Spin Announces New Policies to Become Carbon Negative by 2025
How the Ford Mobility Company Plans to Push the Envelope on Sustainability
Coming out of Covid, micromobility seems to be preparing to return to pre-covid levels. In the U.S., New York City recently announced the winners of the NYC RFP, unlocking the country’s biggest metro to three scooter operators that won the pilot.
While expansion, optimization, and figuring out how to build sustainable businesses are top of mind for the industry, sustainability and minimizing the carbon footprint of logistics and the supply chain are still a major hurdle for an industry that’s selling a value proposition of supporting a sustainable transportation system and aims to decrease the number of automobiles on the road.
Earlier this morning, Spin announced major expansion efforts to its sustainability goals of becoming fully carbon neutral by 2025, which the company announced last August.
Spin’s VP of Public Policy Holly Gordon explained to UrbanTech earlier this week that the program aims to create consistency across Spin’s operations to achieve its sustainability goals and, “work with our suppliers to reduce the carbon footprint of our supply chain.”
Holly explained to me that now that the vehicles are widespread enough, “deployment and operations are the next areas micromobility companies need to focus on reducing their footprints.”
Below is an excerpt from the company blog post that Holly co-authored for the announcement explaining the news initiatives and why Spin took this step:
Transportation services are critical for moving people and goods around and enabling our economy to function. But the sector’s reliance on fossil fuels also makes it a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the U.S., transportation makes up the greatest share of emissions of any sector, at nearly a third of emissions, and is also the fastest-growing source of emissions.
As a micromobility company, Spin is committed to providing our riders with the freedom to move while being a part of the solution — increasing the sustainability of the transport sector and reducing emissions in the cities where we operate. Last August, we announced our goal of becoming carbon negative by 2025 through a series of initiatives, which include fully electrifying our operations, using renewable energy, lowering manufacturing and end-of-life impacts, and aggressively increasing mode shift away from cars for short trips.
Given the urgency of the climate crisis, we know we do not have time to waste and are therefore springing into action. We have evaluated our carbon footprint and will update this annually. We are also taking concrete steps to reduce our emissions and operate more sustainably.
Today, we are excited to announce that our local operations (covering all of our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions) are now carbon neutral for 2020. Our carbon calculations and carbon neutrality have been verified by an independent third party, Agendi, following the rigorous, globally recognized PAS 2060 Carbon Neutrality specification developed by the British Standards Institute (BSI). Now, when riders take a spin on our scooters, they can be confident that their trips are carbon neutral because of the actions that Spin has taken to measure, reduce, and offset our operational emissions. In addition, going forward, Spin will regularly update our emissions calculations. We will also continue to offset all emissions we are unable to reduce or avoid. This will ensure rides from 2020 onwards are carbon neutral....
+++
Editor's note: This piece has been updated to include an updated quote from a Spin executive.
Good morning!!
Welcome to a special edition of the new UrbanTech. You’re receiving this note because you signed up to be a part of our product beta group or are an original UT subscriber.
One of the things we are focusing heavily on leading into our full public launch in May: how are we going to start to cover news for our subscribers?!?
Well, today is the start of that endeavor, so welcome to the UrbanTech News Bulletins,
John
Join UT Premium Today and save 20%
Spin Announces New Policies to Become Carbon Negative by 2025
How the Ford Mobility Company Plans to Push the Envelope on Sustainability
Coming out of Covid, micromobility seems to be preparing to return to pre-covid levels. In the U.S., New York City recently announced the winners of the NYC RFP, unlocking the country’s biggest metro to three scooter operators that won the pilot.
While expansion, optimization, and figuring out how to build sustainable businesses are top of mind for the industry, sustainability and minimizing the carbon footprint of logistics and the supply chain are still a major hurdle for an industry that’s selling a value proposition of supporting a sustainable transportation system and aims to decrease the number of automobiles on the road.
Earlier this morning, Spin announced major expansion efforts to its sustainability goals of becoming fully carbon neutral by 2025, which the company announced last August.
Spin’s VP of Public Policy Holly Gordon explained to UrbanTech earlier this week that the program aims to create consistency across Spin’s operations to achieve its sustainability goals and, “work with our suppliers to reduce the carbon footprint of our supply chain.”
Holly explained to me that now that the vehicles are widespread enough, “deployment and operations are the next areas micromobility companies need to focus on reducing their footprints.”
Below is an excerpt from the company blog post that Holly co-authored for the announcement explaining the news initiatives and why Spin took this step:
Transportation services are critical for moving people and goods around and enabling our economy to function. But the sector’s reliance on fossil fuels also makes it a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the U.S., transportation makes up the greatest share of emissions of any sector, at nearly a third of emissions, and is also the fastest-growing source of emissions.
As a micromobility company, Spin is committed to providing our riders with the freedom to move while being a part of the solution — increasing the sustainability of the transport sector and reducing emissions in the cities where we operate. Last August, we announced our goal of becoming carbon negative by 2025 through a series of initiatives, which include fully electrifying our operations, using renewable energy, lowering manufacturing and end-of-life impacts, and aggressively increasing mode shift away from cars for short trips.
Given the urgency of the climate crisis, we know we do not have time to waste and are therefore springing into action. We have evaluated our carbon footprint and will update this annually. We are also taking concrete steps to reduce our emissions and operate more sustainably.
Today, we are excited to announce that our local operations (covering all of our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions) are now carbon neutral for 2020. Our carbon calculations and carbon neutrality have been verified by an independent third party, Agendi, following the rigorous, globally recognized PAS 2060 Carbon Neutrality specification developed by the British Standards Institute (BSI). Now, when riders take a spin on our scooters, they can be confident that their trips are carbon neutral because of the actions that Spin has taken to measure, reduce, and offset our operational emissions. In addition, going forward, Spin will regularly update our emissions calculations. We will also continue to offset all emissions we are unable to reduce or avoid. This will ensure rides from 2020 onwards are carbon neutral....
+++
Editor's note: This piece has been updated to include an updated quote from a Spin executive.
