Ehingen City Cycling

Championing the theme of ‘Cycling for a better climate’, a 75-strong team of keen riders from Ehingen Mill joined a total of 419 cyclists and 22 other teams who were cycling for the city of Ehingen/Donau, Germany, to take part in CITY CYCLING’s three-week challenge to swap their cars for two wheels.

The Sappi team rode an impressive 24,603 km, avoiding 3,986 kg of CO2 emissions in the period. This contributed to Ehingen/Donau’s overall total of 120,561 km, which equals a saving of around 20 tons of CO2 emissions and sends a clear signal for greater sustainability and healthier mobility.

For each kilometre completed, Sappi Ehingen donated 10 cents to the Radio 7 Drachenkinder campaign to support sick, disabled and traumatised young people in the community – a total of €2,460.30.

This is the second year that Sappi Ehingen has taken part in the challenge, and as a further incentive this year, the top 10 riders were awarded a cycling jersey in the company colours.

Our overall winner who clocked up an impressive total of 1,401 km was Otto Scherb. “My motivation was primarily for personal reasons and for donating to the radio7 Drachenkinder fund,’ he says. ‘Apart from that, I am an enthusiastic cyclist by nature and travel a lot by bike. What I enjoyed most was riding some nice routes - like early in the morning to work when it's still cooler, being in nature and getting some exercise. What’s good about CITY CYCLING is that others are motivated to leave the car behind and use the bicycle as often as possible in everyday life. Everyone is proud of the kilometers they have covered for three good causes - avoiding CO2, doing more for your fitness, and collecting donations for disabled children. Throughout the competition, we pushed each other. That was sometimes really hard.”

The health and wellbeing of our employees is a priority for Sappi, and we hope that initiatives like this inspire our colleagues to take up the offer of a bicycle lease for work and private use offered by Sappi.