Only one in eight Belgian companies meets the regional targets for sustainable commuting by its staff. This is according to the first mobility index published by Securex, an HR service provider, and Vias, the knowledge institute for mobility and road safety. In general, Brussels companies score the best, Flemish companies average, and Walloon companies lag.
Securex calculated the mobility index for 19,626 companies, which together employ 207,184 workers, and ultimately only one in eight achieved the regional targets, with a score of 10 or more.
Average score is 3.73 out of 10
The average index score in Belgium is 3.73. Flemish companies are around the average, with 3.7. Brussels companies score the best, with an average of 5.05, while Walloon companies lag with an average of 3.2.
Three-quarters of Belgian companies (77%) score less than 5. In Flanders, this figure is 76.4%, and in Wallonia, more than 82% of companies score below 5. Brussels performs better, but even there, more than half of companies (57.9%) score less than 5.
In general, companies in and around areas with a high degree of urbanization score better. Brussels has again the highest scores, with Saint-Gilles (6.42), Etterbeek (6.16), and the city of Brussels (5.83). In Flanders, for example, the towns of Ostend (5.84), Ghent (5.53), and Antwerp (5.42) score highest.
The leading cities in Wallonia are Namur (4.37) and Verviers (4.26). These higher scores can mainly be explained by better cycling infrastructure and/or the density of the public transport network.
Greening the vehicle fleet remains a challenge for all regions
The differences between areas highlight the importance of investing in the proper infrastructure. Cycling, public transport, greening the vehicle fleet, and reducing travel remain the most critical areas for improvement, Securex emphasizes.
The accessibility and density of the public transport network in Brussels, for example, translates into huge usage: almost a quarter of (23.4%) of journeys in an average company in Brussels are made by public transport. In Flemish and Walloon companies, the average is much lower, at 2.8% and 2.5%, respectively.
Flanders, on the other hand, stands out positively in terms of cycling. In a typical Flemish company, 10% of commutes are made by bicycle, more than twice as much as in Brussels (4.1%) and almost seven times as much as in Wallonia (1.5%).
However, greening the vehicle fleet remains a challenge for all regions. Although more electric company cars are being purchased, the share of journeys made with combustion engines remains high.
In a typical Belgian company, 13.9% of commuting is done by company car. 62.6% of these journeys are still made with a combustion engine, compared to 13.3% with fully EVs and 24.1% with hybrid vehicles.
‘Government investment in appropriate infrastructure is a prerequisite’
“To improve their score, companies can focus on electrification, switch to sustainable means of transport (modal shift), or reduce the number of trips,” says Sien Van Overloop, research assistant at Securex.
“These three pillars are equally important and can be adapted to the specific context of each company. However, government investment in appropriate infrastructure is an absolute prerequisite for success: companies cannot do it alone.”
The mobility index, introduced a year ago with the assistance of the Federal Public Service Mobility, calculates a mobility score based on CO2 emissions throughout the entire life cycle of various modes of transport. This considers emissions caused by production, use, processing, or recycling at the end of the life cycles.
Internationally recognized scientific sources were used for this CO2 calculation, linked to a calculation model validated by Vias. The underlying CO2 values are then converted into a score, with 10 as the target value.
Commuting accounts for about one-third of trips during the morning rush hour and contributes to 40% of total traffic fatalities in Belgium.
