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The parent company of tyre manufacturer Schwalbe has been given a coveted gold certificate as a bike-friendly employer.
Schwalbe, brand name of Ralf Bohle GmbH, based in Germany, has been designing and making tyres since it was founded in 1922.
The company has officially been granted the ‘Gold’ seal as a bicycle-friendly employer by the German traffic club, Allgemeine Deutsche Fahrrad Club (ADFC), which has been handing out the EU-wide award since 2017.
Frank Bohle, CEO of Ralf Bohle GmbH and son of the original founder said: “When planning our new corporate headquarters, which we moved into in 2021, we focused on our employees from the very beginning and comprehensively considered the issue of bicycle-friendliness. We are therefore extremely pleased to have been recognized and awarded the gold seal by the ADFC.”
The audit report by the ADFC heralded Schwalbe’s culture, saying the bicycle is part of everyday culture at Schwalbe and that “this is very clear in all fields of action and in numerous measures implemented in an exemplary manner.”
Some of the highlights included:
- Employee-friendly company policy: Clock in first and then take a shower.
- Modern sanitary facilities with new lockers and barrier-free showers
- Very spacious, well-equipped professional workshop
- Very spacious, bright, barrier-free bicycle garage with numerous charging options and a bicycle washing facility
- Bike leasing (with Business Bike) for all employees including financial support
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Sara Tsudome, project manager at the ADFC national association, says: “Schwalbe supports employees who use bicycles to get to work with many different measures. This brings many advantages: The employer can thus score points in company health, environmental and mobility management.”
Earlier this year, Schwalbe UK announced that it is now carbon neutral.
Schwalbe has invested in carbon credit projects which together ensure that 28,752 hectares of forest is maintained as protected habitat for high conservation value species – a small first step on the way to achieving the company’s sustainability goals.
