Bolt to invest over €10million to reduce carbon footprint

The provider of ride-hailing and scooter sharing services Bolt is set to start fulfilling its recently adopted climate goals in 2020 and will invest over ten million euros to reduce its carbon footprint.

Bolt said in a press release on Tuesday that as part of its Green Plan, a long-term commitment to reduce the ecological footprint of Bolt as a company, their first step is to make all Bolt rides in Europe 100 percent carbon neutral by buying verified emission reduction, offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions that Bolt rides create.

The countries included in the CO2 offsetting project are Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Georgia, Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, Romania, Russia, Serbia and the UK.

The founder of Bolt, Markus Villig, said that a more resolute approach needs to be taken to climate change than has been the case to date.

"Let us start from facts. Climate change is for real, and greenhouse gases are its main cause. Today land transport accounts for 20 percent of European greenhouse gases. Bolt is a part of that ecosystem and also we are responsible for finding solutions to this problem. We are working every day to move towards energy effective means of transit -- be it electric cars, scooters, or making available other means of transit that are yet to be invented," he said.

Villig said he hopes that Bolt's example will motivate also other companies to adopt ambitious goals in reducing their carbon footprint.
"Bolt is in a unique position -- we can act ourselves and serve as an example to others. We hope that our initiative will have a proactive effect," he said.

Specifically, the Green Plan is aimed at neutralizing Bolt's contribution to the CO2 emissions of the European transportation sector, with a minimum commitment of five million tons offset by 2025; reducing emissions by bringing scooters, electric cars and other environmentally friendly transport options for you to move in cities; and using renewable energy, and 100 percent offsetting where that is not available, in all Bolt offices around the world in 2020.

Bolt's carbon offsetting projects will be sourced in cooperation with international environmental experts from National Capital Partners.
Bolt, formerly named Taxify, is presently operating in over 30 countries and 100 cities.