Five sustainable ideas for your organisation

The images of the floods in Wallonia this summer will remain in our memory. We are confronted daily with the reality that actions are (or must be) taken to stop climate change.

As an entrepreneur and an employer, in addition to setting certain goals for your company, you can also think very specifically about a climate-friendly HR policy.

If you deem sustainability as highly important, this will contribute to a positive corporate image, which in turn will have a positive effect on your attractiveness as an employer and on employee retention. Very important in times of labour shortages.

Different climate supporting themes can be ticked on your HR agenda:

• Climate and remuneration: which benefits do you offer in your cafeteria plan? What incentives can you as an employer give to support employees with renovation plans?
• Climate and mobility: rapid greening of the vehicle fleet and deployment of alternative modes
• Climate and teleworking: no mobility is also a green choice
• Climate and well-being at work: how do you increase the well-being of your employees through a green policy?
• Climate and social dialogue within the company: Go Green, you do it together.

We give you five ideas to make your organization more sustainable today.

Commuting comprises an important part of daily traffic in Belgium. However, you can make these journeys more sustainable. By giving the bicycle a prominent role in your business, you can make a difference. There are several ways you can do that.

Provide bicycles for your employees

You can provide your employees with a bicycle, so you can ultimately respond to the needs and requirements of your employees. Would they like a city or electric bike? Or rather a carrier bike? With or without the necessary accessories? It's all possible.

You can make the bicycle available as a 'bonus' on top of the salary, or you can let the employee trade in wages to finance the bicycle, for example through a cafeteria plan or flexible salary policy. Another option is to sign up for a group buy of bikes for your employees.

Give a bicycle allowance

You can give your pedalling employees a financial boost through the bicycle allowance. This is exempt from social security and taxes up to 0.24 euros per kilometre, at least if you allocate it in the framework of commuting. There must be a declaration of honour that the home to work trip is actually made by bike. It is possible that your sector imposes a bicycle allowance, but you can also make agreements at company level.

Federal Government supports

The federal government will continue to support companies through BE CYCLIST in order to promote cycling. Acerta will keep you informed.

Another option to make commuting more sustainable is to encourage the use of shared transport. Fewer cars on the road means less traffic jams (and therefore less time lost) and fewer CO₂ emissions.

Public transport, possibly in combination with another sustainable means of transport (such as a shared bicycle or e-step) when the company is far from a station, is a good way to reduce the number of car users. But carpooling is also a great initiative that can reduce the number of cars on the road.

Sometimes the car is the only option for commuting or work-related travel. There too, it is possible to become more sustainable. In order to achieve the greening of (company) car mobility, all kinds of tax measures have been introduced to encourage a carbon-free (company) car fleet. The new measures include a growth path so that you can take them into account when planning your company car policy.

Your employees who have a company car or are eligible for one, can choose from one or more mobility solutions, divided into 3 pillars, via the mobility budget. This includes an environmentally friendly company car, sustainable means of transport (including certain accommodation costs) and a cash allowance.

Here too, changes are in the pipeline to make the mobility budget more attractive. We list what you can expect, here for you.

With the CLA 90 wage bonus, you can give your employees favourable (para)fiscal rewards for achieving collective targets. This bonus applies to all of your company employees or to a specific group. A company's collective bargaining agreement or act of accession must set clearly measurable and verifiable objectives in advance, the outcome of which must be clearly uncertain. The objectives must relate to the collective results of the company, with a concrete numerical target being set. You can then, for example, take a reduction in well-defined (energy) costs or a reduction in paper consumption in your company as your objective. If the objectives are achieved, you may grant up to a maximum of 3,447 euros gross (in 2021) to your staff.