‘Phenomenal’ response to Corporate Commute Nudge initiative at Biocon, Bengaluru

In April this year, biopharmaceutical firm Biocon kickstarted a one-of-its-kind corporate commute initiative aimed at encouraging public transport through the integration of metro and bus services onto a single digital platform.

Unveiled by Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the programme is part of the Station Access and Mobility Program (STAMP), led by WRI India and Toyota Mobility Foundation at Electronics City, Bengaluru.

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Srinivas Alavilli, Program Senior Fellow – Sustainable Cities and Transport in WRI India, told The Statesman that the initiative is turning out to be a success,  “The response from employees has been very encouraging. Most of the big companies provide incentives like free parking, fuel reimbursement etc. to employees who use personal vehicles but the employees that use public transport for office commute rarely get such benefits though they are helping reduce congestion and pollution in the city by not using personal vehicles.”

“The thinking behind this Corporate Commute Nudge initiative is ‘What can companies do to encourage employees to use public transport for their daily office commute?’ ” he added.

Different companies in Electronics City deployed different solutions towards this goal. Biocon chose to use the Tummoc Mobility App to help manage this program, where employees can do journey planning and ticketing and the company views dashboards and understands how employees are leveraging public transport along with tracking their CO2 emissions.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson of Biocon, launched this programme in the presence of City Police Commissioner and CEO of Biocon. The initial cohort of employees were chosen based on proximity to the metro network that connects to the Biocon campus.

The senior WRI India official shared that the Nudge programme is being implemented in a phased manner. “This is the first time that a big corporate company is trying to use behavioural science-based tech innovations to get people to use public transport. Companies can not only encourage sustainable mobility options but also monitor carbon savings towards ensuring ESG compliance.”

Based on the experience with Biocon, WRI India is now working with other companies in other cities including Hyderabad and Mumbai. “It takes effort for corporates to adopt new policies as it requires internal reviews and approvals from information security, HR and other departments. We are hoping that the Biocon experience will inspire other corporates to experiment with this unique approach that helps reduce urban congestion and pollution along with providing safe, sustainable and reliable commute options to employees. Access to dashboards and leaderboards that help measure impact and automate such incentives is an added benefit for companies looking to lower their carbon footprint,” he added.