Lime UK is propelling a brand new imaginative and prescient for sustainable cities. We hold their mission absolutely charged, supplying Lime’s e-bikes with 100% clear, inexperienced power.
Lime UK gives simple, inexperienced, electrified transport for tomorrow’s cities, serving to us to maneuver away from vehicles by providing one other inexperienced, socially distant different to straightforward public transport. Lime at the moment gives e-bikes all through London and Milton Keynes, with the aim of increasing into extra UK cities. In truth, it was lately introduced that additional e-scooter trials had been quick tracked to June 2020, with Lime poised to be an enormous participant in that house too.
We have been supplying Lime with 100% renewable energy since April 2019.
Riders have cycled over 4 million miles on Lime’s assertion inexperienced e-bikes since we started powering them with renewable power. Which means Lime has saved 1,592 metric tonnes of CO2 from being launched into the environment – the equal of planting round 26,000 timber!
I am Eloise, a part of the dynamic Octo-team who take care of the UK companies we energy. I lately caught up with Florence Milner, Basic Supervisor for Lime UK, to debate all issues Octopus and Lime, and the way we might help get individuals again to enterprise in protected and sustainable methods post-lockdown.
Questioning what a Lime e-Bike appears to be like like? This is Basic Supervisor Florence Milner taking one for a spin!
Eloise: Are you able to inform me slightly about Lime’s founding imaginative and prescient?
Florence: Lime goals to reimagine city life by means of the surprise of mobility, serving to to create people-first cities. Lime e-bikes and e-scooters can rework metropolis life, making means for a cleaner, more healthy planet by revolutionizing city transport.
Our founders, Brad Bao and Toby Solar, initially targeted on getting e-bikes on the streets and able to experience, but e-scooter know-how was additionally quickly evolving. Lime now has scooter and bike sharing fleets serving over 120 cities globally in 30 nations throughout 5 continents.
We’re pushed by the straightforward perception that metropolis life is an exquisite life. We consider we are able to positively impression cities by connecting individuals and communities all over the world.
Eloise: How has Lime UK grown thus far, and what are your future plans?
Florence: Lime UK launched in Milton Keynes in November 2018, rapidly adopted by a London launch in December 2018. Our e-bikes are actually obtainable in 4 London boroughs: Camden, Islington, Brent and Ealing.
We place ourselves as ‘Dockless 2.0’. To this point, we’ve confirmed that we are able to make e-bikes work within the cities and are actually very excited to launch e-scooters as a part of Authorities trials beginning as early as July 2020. We’ll affirm places for e-scooter trials over the approaching weeks, able to speed up into 2021 with a brand new imaginative and prescient of UK city mobility!
The prospect of e-scooters could be very thrilling for Lime UK. Some individuals essentially don’t consider themselves as cyclists, so e-scooters have the potential to open up an entire new buyer base.
Eloise: What about Lime UK’s dedication to sustainability?
Florence: Sustainability is on the coronary heart of what we do and we’re devoted to offering transport alternatives for all with out impacting our surroundings.
Lime has signed an settlement with 75 different worldwide firms, pledging to have a 100% electrical fleet working all our operations by 2030 – however we goal to take action nicely upfront. We’re additionally reaching sustainability by streamlining our charging operations and establishing a sturdy restore and reuse program to increase the life cycle of merchandise.
No less than 97% of our outdated bikes and scooters are recycled. Within the UK we’re at the moment reaching round 99%, reusing as many earlier bike elements as attainable.
And, after all, all of our UK e-bikes are provided with 100% renewable power from Octopus Power. By being on a inexperienced provide we are able to guarantee each a part of a Lime experience is useful for each the rider and the setting.
Eloise: Why did you select Octopus Power as your provider?
Florence: We selected Octopus Power as a result of it has the flexibleness and the mindset to totally assist our progress.
A provider that understands we don’t have all of the solutions to start with is essential for Lime’s success. Lime is regularly evolving: our operations now look fully completely different to the place they had been six months in the past. When we’ve e-scooters on the streets, it will be a very completely different story as soon as once more.
We could not be with a supplier that caught us on the identical tariff for a yr, this isn’t the place we’re by way of studying and evolution. Octopus has grown alongside us, persevering with to assist us as we’ve scaled up. We now have actually gotten to know the group, they examine in each few months to analyse our utilization information and supply us the tariffs that can actually work alongside our evolving enterprise wants.
A big proportion of our prospects select Lime as a result of they need a carbon impartial journey, utilizing e-bikes to get to work slightly than automobile or public transport. That is one thing we actually prioritised and so being on a inexperienced provider like Octopus is vital.
Eloise: Might you inform me slightly bit about why it’s so necessary to energy electrical transport with renewable power?
Florence: Utilizing electrical transport is clearly nice, however that is additionally just one a part of the entire provide chain. It’s all nicely and good using an e-scooter or driving an electrical automobile, however if you’re supplying it with brown power, then the general impression must be thought-about. Sure, you might be bettering rapid air high quality by mitigating exhaust fumes, however you might be having a adverse impression by charging with soiled power.
We have to think about the entire lifecycle of our transport, and the facility that we use to cost has an enormous half to play.
We’re blissful to say that Lime’s world fleet is backed by 100% renewable power and that Octopus Power helps play an necessary function in that effort.
Eloise: Is there something you’ve learnt from the impression of lockdown in your operations over the previous couple of months?
Florence: Although lockdown occurred for clearly terrible causes, it has given individuals the possibility to see a distinct imaginative and prescient of cities, and rethink their experience as they adapt to the ‘new regular.’
Individuals have been strolling and biking a lot extra. I’ve seen dad and mom biking by means of central London with their youngsters, which might by no means have occurred pre-lockdown due to the quantity of vehicles on the road.
This has been a suspended second in time, and it’s essential going ahead that we take some positives out of all of the negatives coronavirus has introduced.
Electrical bikes and scooters may be a good way to maintain change; they open the world up outdoors of a automobile. Individuals change into much more related to their cities when they’re biking by means of them within the open air.
By way of the financial restoration, having pleasant metropolis landscapes populated with bikes and scooters can actually draw individuals again to excessive streets, bars and cafes. A current examine by TFL confirmed that pedestrians, cyclists and people utilizing public transport spend 40% extra in native outlets than motorists.
If we’re genuinely going to ignite a inexperienced restoration and rebuild our financial system and society after this extremely troublesome time, then altering the best way we work together with our environment is important. Permitting individuals to journey by means of cities in a means that has minimal impression on the setting can solely be a constructive.
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