UK employers offering nearly 5,000 days of paid leave for employees to take climate action
In 2023 UK employers who are signed up to the Climate Perks employee benefits scheme, will offer their employees 4,983 days of paid leave so they can use low-carbon transport to get to their holiday destinations.
The scheme has already helped many people discover the joys of slower, greener travel and as the scheme looks to scale up in 2023, thousands more employees might be on track to start experiencing travel in a new way.
Climate charity Possible created Climate Perks to tackle one of the biggest barriers to flight-free travel - time. As the aviation industry looks to increase passenger numbers to unsustainable levels, and as the UK looks for ways to cut the UK’s carbon emissions by 68% below 1990 levels by 2030, managing demand for polluting flights is going to be essential.
The scheme enables employers to offer their staff a minimum of two paid ‘journey days’ when employees choose flight-free travel to their holiday destination - helping people to access the destinations they want to go to but also safeguarding them for the future.
Since launching, Climate Perks has seen 65 organisations promise to give their employees at least two travel days, covering a total of over 2,200 employees. These organisations include the likes of the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth, the ferry service Direct Ferries, and the law firm Bates Wells.
Harriet Berwick, senior product manager at software company SilverRail, said:
“Climate Perks is a fantastic addition to our benefits at SilverRail. Not only does it allow us to practise what we preach but it allows you the time to explore overland journeys you wouldn’t ordinarily have time for. It has made me stop and think each time I go to fly in Europe, which is the point. It’s made me sit back and think, is there a greener way to go on my holiday?
“This year my journey took me from Pisa to La Spezia, La Spezia through Cinque Terre stopping off to see the villages. Then La Spezia to Turin. Turin to Paris and Eurostar home. Personally, I think it’s great.”
Hannah Bland, Climate Perks project manager at climate charity Possible, said:
“Running the Climate Perks scheme has made me realise just how much people are willing to partake in, and enjoy, slow travel. As we face the impacts of the climate crisis, it’s important that people are empowered to take action. Through this scheme, people can take one small step that can be part of a broader movement away from flights that harm the planet. Quite simply, we need to fly less. And with Climate Perks, employees everywhere can do that.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
For media enquiries and further information please contact press@wearepossible.org or 07806431577.
Hannah Bland, Climate Perks project manager at climate charity Possible, is available for comment. Please contact press@wearepossible.org for more information.
Possible is a UK-based charity that brings people together to take positive, practical action on climate change. Combining individual and local actions with larger systemic change, we connect people with each other, and communities with ways to address the climate crisis. wearepossible.org.