Transportation services are critical for moving people and goods around, and enabling our economy to function. But the sector’s reliance on fossil fuels also makes it a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the U.S., transportation makes up the greatest share of emissions of any sector, at nearly a third of emissions, and is also the fastest-growing source of emissions.
As a micromobility company, Spin is committed to providing our riders with the freedom to move while being a part of the solution — increasing the sustainability of the transport sector and reducing emissions in the cities where we operate. Last August, we announced our goal of becoming carbon negative by 2025 through a series of initiatives, which include fully electrifying our operations, using renewable energy, lowering manufacturing and end-of-life impacts, and aggressively increasing mode shift away from cars for short trips.
Given the urgency of the climate crisis, we know we do not have time to waste and are therefore springing into action. We have evaluated our carbon footprint and will update this annually. We are also taking concrete steps to reduce our emissions and operate more sustainably.
Today, we are excited to announce that our local operations (covering all of our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions) are now carbon neutral for 2020. Our carbon calculations and carbon neutrality have been verified by an independent third party, Agendi, following the rigorous, globally recognized PAS 2060 Carbon Neutrality specification developed by the British Standards Institute (BSI). Now, when riders take a spin on our scooters, they can be confident that their trips are carbon neutral because of the actions that Spin has taken to measure, reduce, and offset our operational emissions. In addition, going forward, Spin will regularly update our emissions calculations. We will also continue to offset all emissions we are unable to reduce or avoid. This will ensure rides from 2020 onwards are carbon neutral.
How did we achieve this?
The charging of our electric scooters is one of our main uses of energy and we made this emissions free by transitioning to the use of 100 percent renewable electricity — through direct purchases of renewable energy as well as renewable energy certificates (RECs) — in all of our warehouses. In cases where we relied on RECs, we purchased Green-e certified RECs from wind projects in the U.S. and Guarantees of Origin (GOs) to cover our operations in Germany.
We are also supporting two high-quality, verified carbon offset projects to offset the emissions we were unable to avoid in the heating of our warehouses and operations of the vans that we use to maintain and deploy our scooters. With the help of Agendi, we provided support to an improved forestry management project in California — the Usal Redwood Forest — and a Truck Stop Electrification project.
As a company headquartered in San Francisco and that operates in a number of cities in the Western U.S., we know the devastation and destruction that wildfires can cause. Improved forest management practices, such as the selective thinning of trees and the clearing of fuel loads, can help reduce the potential risks of wildfires while also sequestering carbon, restoring degraded forest ecosystems, protecting biodiversity, and enhancing water quality. The Usal Redwood Forest covers nearly 50,000 acres and is sustainably managed by the Usal Redwood Forest Co, a subsidiary of the Redwood Forest Foundation, whose responsible forestry practices have been certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council. Through a comprehensive forest management plan that involves restoring the forest, harvesting sustainably, and engaging the community, the project has led to healthier forestlands and watersheds that provide ecological and economic benefits, preserve fish and wildlife habitat, and mitigate climate change. The carbon offsets from this project were verified using the Climate Action Reserve standard and approved by California’s Air Resources Board.
Building healthier, more equitable cities are two other important pillars of Spin’s work. The second project we selected — Truck Stop Electrification — supports the deployment of technology that allows truck drivers to turn off rather than idle their engines, while still maintaining desired temperatures in the truck. Truck stops are often located in low-income neighborhoods and the harmful emissions and air pollutants from tailpipes can negatively affect the health of people living nearby. Hence, this project not only prevents carbon emissions, but also advances environmental justice as well as the health and well-being of the residents that live near these truck stops by reducing air pollution. Offsets from the project were issued using the American Carbon Registry standard. While the offsets we acquired were specific to Texas, the project is implemented across multiple states.
What’s next?
This is just the first step in our sustainability journey. Going forward, we will continue to take actions to reduce the emissions we produce in the first place — for example, by transitioning to electric vehicles — and expanding our carbon neutrality to cover all of Spin’s activities.
Our first electric vans will be arriving in San Francisco, CA and Washington, D.C. this month in celebration of Earth Month 2021, making us the first micromobility company to deploy full-sized electric vehicles as a part of its operations in the U.S. We will also begin purchasing and deploying several Ford Mustang Mach-Es and low-speed electric vehicles and expanding our use of e-cargo bikes in our operations. The transition to these smaller vehicles is made possible by the roll-out of our latest scooters, which have swappable batteries that can be exchanged onsite without taking the scooters back to the warehouse for charging. This will enable us to have two fully electric markets in the U.S. by the end of the year. In addition, our markets in Spain — Madrid and Tarragona — have already reached this milestone, having launched earlier this year using 100 percent electric vehicles. Our markets in Herne, Germany and Essex, UK will also reach this milestone shortly. We will continue our roll-out of electric operations vehicles until we have reached 100 percent in all markets.
Using electric vehicles that are powered with clean energy will help us eliminate the need to burn fossil fuels when deploying our scooters so we can avoid adding to local emissions in the cities where we operate. We will also continue to expand our direct renewable electricity purchase wherever we can, to support local renewable energy markets, and look for opportunities to further reduce vehicle miles travelled by our operations vehicles.
Our ambition is to be a fully carbon neutral company. This entails all Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions along our entire value chain — from the manufacturing and transportation of our scooters all the way to a scooter’s end of life, and everywhere in between. We expect to reach this goal by the end of this summer. In addition, going forward, Spin will regularly update our emissions calculations. We will also continue to offset all emissions we are unable to reduce or avoid. This will ensure rides from 2020 onwards are carbon neutral.
How we will achieve carbon negative
Measuring, reducing, and offsetting emissions are critical to mitigating climate change — and Spin will continue to do all three — but we know that alone will not be sufficient to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming well below 2oC above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. We will also need solutions that capture, use, and store carbon. This is why Spin is also contributing a portion of our revenues to Stripe Climate this year to support innovative companies whose technologies can permanently remove carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere. This means that when riders take a trip on a Spin scooter, they’ll also support carbon removal companies that are at a critical stage of their growth and development. We are excited to help collectively scale the solutions needed to meet the world’s climate goals.
Ultimately, our sustainability goal is not only to be carbon neutral, but instead, to be carbon negative — removing more emissions than we add to the transit ecosystem. We can’t accomplish this alone — it will take collective action. We will work with our suppliers to reduce the emissions associated with our scooters and the other goods and services we use to keep our company operating effectively to serve our riders.
Most importantly, we will continue to work to provide riders with a sustainable, safe, and reliable mode of transportation so they will choose to use scooters and other sustainable transport modalities over cars for short journeys. This requires a combination of safe infrastructure and equitable access to transportation, in addition to sustainability. We have implemented Streets projects that help make our streets safer for bikes and scooters, and are working with cities to bring more permanence to these projects. We are also partnering with the community and investing in initiatives that improve mobility equity to provide greater access to our services. Together — we can transform the future of mobility.
Find out more about our sustainability initiatives at https://www.spin.app/sustainability
Holly Gordon leads the Policy team at Spin, including Sustainability, Public Policy and Spin’s Streets and Equity programs. Prior to Spin she built and led BART’s sustainability program and team. She also led Public Policy at Sunrun, the nation’s largest residential solar installer. Prior to leading policy work, Holly practiced and taught environmental justice law.
Hui Wen Chan leads Sustainability at Spin and spearheads cross-functional efforts to implement Spin’s Carbon Negative by 2025 Strategy. Previously, she led ESG strategy and reporting and climate risk management at Citi. She began her career in consulting and investment banking, and also has experience managing global health programs in the non-profit sector.
