Lime sets target to be carbon negative by 2025

Lime has announced its target to be carbon negative by 2025.

The company has also partnered with WWF to create ‘more livable, pollution-free cities’. The Ride Green initiative will include education initiatives to promote cleaner modes of transportation as well as local grassroots advocacy to advance more sustainable urban mobility and livable cities.

“Today more than 50% of the world’s population lives in cities,” said Jennifer Lenhart, global lead for Cities at WWF. “Transport choices and availability plays a key role in the carbon intensity of city mobility.

“As cities build back post-COVID-19, we need to rethink transport alternatives, tackling air pollution, carbon emissions and congestion, working with policymakers to move from car-centric urban design to more human-centred, low-carbon and active transportation, like walking, cycling and shared micromobility. For this, WWF is excited to work with Lime to promote streets for people and healthier, pollution-free cities.”

Wayne Ting, CEO of Lime, added: “We believe the future of urban mobility is shared, is electric, and must be carbon-free. We’re thrilled to partner with WWF to make tangible progress in addressing the climate crisis while helping make cities healthier and more connected.

“We are excited to work with WWF to promote ways for people to access cleaner transportation with the goal of preventing more than 100 million vehicle trips a year by 2025.”

Ride Green will include three pillars, on education and engagement, promoting lower carbon and carbon-free transportation options; advocacy for improving urban mobility and reducing pollution; and carbon innovations by Lime to further improve the impact of micromobility impact on city transportation towards a carbon-free future.

Education
Lime and WWF will expand awareness of conventional mobility’s air pollution impacts and engage communities to choose for cleaner alternatives. The effort will seek to promote WWF’s global One Planet City Challenge, which helps cities align to the Paris Agreement on climate change and underscore the importance of sustainable urban mobility through WWF’s new Travel Better tool that includes climate change and air pollution data. The initiative will raise global awareness of the impacts of shifting away from cars to smarter, cleaner urban transportation choices like walking, bikes, e-bikes, e-scooters and public transportation.

Advocacy
The joint effort will harness the power of Lime’s millions of global riders and WWF’s 60 years of global conservation expertise and leadership to advocate locally in cities for reducing climate pollution, expanding mobility options, and creating safer streets. The advocacy initiative will leverage Lime’s recently-launched Lime Action platform and include local advocacy for mobility infrastructure improvements, reducing pollution, public transportation, and expanding access to mobility. The joint initiative will begin in over a dozen countries worldwide, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary, Romania, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and South Korea.

Carbon Innovation
Lime is committed to being carbon negative throughout its business and entire value chain by 2025, and will simultaneously set an externally validated science-based carbon pollution target consistent with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C and the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi). WWF, World Resources Institute, and the UN Global Compact are members of the SBTi, the highest standard of carbon goals setting. Lime will also seek to expand the impact its service has on reducing pollution, in particular promoting how riders can reduce carbon emissions through their mode shift – scooter and bike trips taken instead of a private car, taxi or ride-hailing.

According to the operator, one in four of Lime’s global e-scooter and e-bike trips replace a car trip. Lime riders have saved more than 45 million car trips to date, equivalent to a traffic jam wrapping bumper to bumper more than 5 ½ times around the Earth. By 2025, the company expects riders to be preventing more than 100 million car trips each year, saving over 50,000 tons of carbon emissions – the equivalent of the carbon sequestered by over 65,000 acres annually.

As part of the initiative, the company will expand powering all e-bikes and e-scooters on 100% renewable energy to all offices and warehouses, and rely on even more local renewable energy. Lime currently procures local renewable energy in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, and will be expanding the practice in other regions.

The company will transition the operations vehicles used to manage its programmes to electric, far ahead of the Global Climate Group’s EV100 commitment made by Lime. Lime’s operations fleet will be all-electric across Europe in early 2021 and all non-electric vehicles phased out by 2023 at the latest throughout the rest of the world where vehicle supply is more constrained.

Lime plans to introduce a new, lower carbon scooter design, by increasing lifespan, the use of recycled content up from 70% today, utilising lower carbon materials or manufacturing, and enhancing its modular design and lifespan. The company also plans to expand second-life pilots for batteries. Lime will continue to reduce carbon across its supply chain and invest in carbon removal initiatives on the path to achieving the company’s science-based target.