What it means and how we are making an impact
When the news came that SkedGo was now a Certified B CorporationTM, there’s no denying it was an incredible moment. After a rigorous 18 months of working with B Lab, this was the recognition of our work to help make mobility more sustainable and reduce the number of cars on the road through our journey planning solutions, whilst at the same time running our business in a way that’s ethical and inclusive.
Our story began more than 14 years ago when our founders attended a soccer game in the suburbs of Sydney. They were astounded to find that out of the 40 people there, each had arrived in their own car – an incredible waste of resources. This inspired them to search for a more sustainable solution and so, SkedGo was born.
Today, social responsibility remains at the core of our company’s mission. It’s in our DNA. We have teams across the globe who develop innovative solutions for our clients and their end users, from integrating inclusive mobility features for underserved communities to continuously iterating and evolving our award-winning applications to support a more equitable transport system.
What it means
Showing the world our commitment to being a responsible business has never been more important in our eyes. Through certification as a B Corp, we’re proudly demonstrating our values in action and solidifying our position as a well-governed organisation. In this way, we ensure that our core purpose rings true in both our words and deeds.
B Corp’s holistic approach resonated with us and we were curious to see what we could learn along the way to become an even better business. We believe every mobility business can benefit from joining the global B Corp family— it’s vital for creating a sustainable, human-centred model that everyone can stand behind.
What we do
We’ve always believed that social responsibility and good business practices can work hand-in-hand. They’re not mutually exclusive. It’s the way we’ve always approached our business. Indeed, our work focuses on three important pillars:
Innovation
We’ve been leading the way in sustainable mobility since 2009. As a MaaS technology enabler, our mobility solutions are completely tailored, localised and adaptable to a diverse range of use cases. Using our unique API, SDK and white label technology, organisations can rapidly create their own multi/mixed modal MaaS offering, including journey planning, parking, book & pay, events and itineraries. Deep integration and data from IoT sensors are just some of the ways we fulfil our people-centric approach to support inclusive, accessible and sustainable mobility.
Equity
We made it our mission to consider all mobility users. Having two directors with limited mobility has helped to shape the accessibility features, which are built into our apps and tools as standard. This helps to ensure our solutions are inclusive.
And it doesn’t stop there. Personalised and contextual trips offer a choice of speed, cost, convenience, low carbon emissions and active travel. We also add new features based on research and client/community feedback to ensure our technology remains impactful and that it solves real-world problems that people face when it comes to mobility options and accessibility.
Social impact
SkedGo is committed to making a difference and strengthening communities. We’ve partnered with clients such as US-based nonprofit Feonix – Mobility Rising to help tackle mobility insecurity and help make people’s lives better. Our applications are making it easier for veterans, people with disabilities, and lower-income families to get to work, medical appointments, and social engagements.
We also support local authorities such as Leicester City Council in their goal to reduce car usage, encourage sustainable travel, and improve air quality. Our applications provide visibility of CO2 emissions for trips, access to active travel, and cycle route and path safety features so people can make conscious decisions about their transport choices.
What we learnt
We are proud of what we have achieved over the years, not only as a business but also for our clients and their end users. The B Impact AssessmentTM provided us with confirmation that we are on the right track. It also provided us with a great opportunity to do some soul-searching; putting our internal operations under a microscope was a very valuable process.
Having grown organically over the years, we realised certain structures and policies needed attention. For instance, having an ethical marketing policy was paramount, allowing us to emphasise that we don’t, for example, engage in greenwashing. We wanted to make sure this was evident in our company culture and operations as well, so we put it in writing. Now everyone knows how we operate and what our standards are.
We also took a closer look at the structures and policies for our employees to ensure everyone was clear on how to exercise their rights. In the process of reflection, we’ve created an employee travel app too. While most people already opt for sustainable options like our CEO John Nuutinen (who’s an avid public transport user), now we can incentivise everyone across the company with a mobility budget to reward responsible mobility choices.
Just the beginning
Our B Corp Certification has been a journey and well worth the investment of time and energy. Yet this is only the beginning. We look forward to continuing our work to ensure that mobility is accessible, inclusive and sustainable—a mission that earned us recognition in the Juniper Research Net Zero Awards and two consecutive Global Good Awards finalist spots.
We’re proud of the positive impact our solutions have on people’s lives, particularly where they reach those who need them the most. By meeting the rigorous demands of B Corp Certification, we’re pleased to have demonstrated our commitment as a socially responsible business, joining a growing global community who are determined to do the same. We look forward to building a more equitable future together.
Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about our solutions and how we can help you.
