Active, healthy and sustainable travel

Find out how encouraging active travel supports healthier, more productive employees and reduces your organisation’s environmental impact.

What can employers do

Here are some ways you can promote active travel in your workplace to encourage employees to walk, wheel, cycle or use public transport when travelling:

Promote walking, wheeling and cycling for short journeys

Where possible, encourage walking, wheeling or cycling to work.

Share local authority active travel route maps, promote safe cycling information and consider setting up workplace walking groups.

Improve onsite facilities

Installing secure bike storage, lockers, showers, and spaces for changing and drying clothes can make it much easier for staff to choose active travel. Even a small investment in these facilities can go a long way in supporting health and wellbeing at work.

If the cost is a barrier, employers can explore partnerships with local sports centres, gyms, or larger organisations that may be able to offer these facilities for their staff to use.

Support public transport use

Encourage the use of public transport by providing season ticket loans or financial contributions, promoting local travel timetables and communicating the associated benefits.

Encourage car sharing

Where there aren’t viable options to walk, wheel, cycle or take public transport, encourage and support staff to share their car trips with colleagues living locally.

Introduce flexible working hours and agile working

Help staff avoid peak travel times and plan journeys more easily by offering flexible start and finish times, and enable agile working where appropriate, with staff able to work remotely from home or an office closer to their home, for some of their week.

Find out more about flexible working.

Run workplace challenges and incentives

Organise ‘leave the car at home’ days, step count challenges or cycling competitions with prizes or recognition.

Engage staff and lead by example

Set up an active travel champion or working group. Leadership buy-in and support, and peer encouragement are key to changing habits.

Review travel policies and plans

Include active travel in your sustainable workplace or travel strategy.

Partner with local authorities, transport providers or other businesses to provide feedback on local transport proposals and boost awareness.

The Healthy Travel Charter Standards for Wales provides a national framework to help organisations in Wales promote healthier, more sustainable and lower carbon travel.

Building on the success of regional Charters across Wales, the new Standards offer:

Clearer actions for organisations to take
Three levels of achievement
Greater flexibility, particularly for organisations operating across multiple sites or regions.

By signing up, employers can:

Support staff wellbeing
Reduce sickness absence
Cut carbon emissions

The Standards are suitable for both organisations new to the Charter and existing signatories looking to build on their achievements. They do not change the requirements for organisations already signed up to a current or recently launched regional Charter.

Explore the Healthy Travel Charter Standards for Wales to see how your organisation can sign up and lead the way.

Page last reviewed: 30th September 2026