We’ve had an exciting year, marked by the adoption of our sustainability strategy.

The aim of the strategy is threefold: reducing our carbon footprint, ensuring the well-being of our customers, employees, and partners, and taking active steps to nudge urban dwellers towards more sustainable transport modes.

This blog post gives you a snapshot of our progress.

The 3 pillars of our sustainability strategy

Our newly adopted sustainability strategy focuses on 3 key areas:

Greenhouse gas emissions. A primary goal is reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to carbon net zero by 2040. We’re measuring the intensity of our GHG emissions globally and across all products, which helps us understand where we can make the most impact in reducing our carbon footprint.
Safety and well-being. Ensuring the safety and well-being of customers, employees, and courier and driver partners is paramount. We’re implementing safety measures, guidance programmes, and support systems to create a secure environment for all.
Risk management and governance. These are pivotal in our journey towards environmental sustainability. Ensuring the long-term success of our sustainability initiatives requires robust oversight and management of potential risks.

Keep reading to see what each of these areas stands for and the actions we’re taking.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

What gets measured gets managed. Metrics are, therefore, a crucial part of our sustainability strategy. Here’s a brief overview of our key metrics for environmental sustainability:

Group	GHG emissions intensity (2022)	199 gCO2e/km
Group	Share of renewable electricity in the electricity used in our premises (Q3 2023)	33.6%
Rides	Share of EV mileage in select markets ¹ (Q3 2023)	6.7%
Micromobility	Estimated emissions avoided due to scooters replacing car trips (2022)	24 000 tCO2e
Car-sharing	Share of mileage in hybrid and electric vehicles (Q3 2023)	13.9%
Delivery	Share of zero-emission deliveries (bikes, walking) (Q3 2023)	14%

¹Portugal, United Kingdom, France, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Germany

This is just some of the data that shows us how our efforts have worked and what we can improve — including how much carbon we have to offset.

2023 carbon offsetting overview

In 2023, we continued our offset programme, covering the emissions from our micromobility and Bolt Business operations. To date, we’ve offset approximately 820,000 tonnes of CO2e.

While our scooters and e-bikes are zero-emission during their use, emissions are associated with their manufacturing and operation. And since we’re not able to eliminate these entirely, we offset them.

For Bolt Business clients, we offset 100% of emissions from ride-hailing, car-sharing, scooters, e-bikes, and Bolt Food deliveries. This includes the emissions from trips taken, and excludes the full life cycles of vehicles and food deliveries, except for scooters and e-bikes.

Safety and well-being

Although second on the list, the safety and well-being of customers, employees, and courier and driver partners is our priority.

2023 featured several sustainability-related product launches and initiatives that will bring us closer to our long-term sustainability goals.

The new Bolt 6 scooter

In the summer of 2023, we launched Bolt 6, designed with input from cities and customers.

Recognising scooters’ potential to cut urban CO2 emissions, we increased the use of recycled materials and expanded the battery range.

Consequently, Bolt 6 boasts a 1.1 kWh vandalism-resistant battery, expanding its range to 90 km per charge, and incorporates 70% pre-used aluminium in its components.

Bolt Drive expansion

We expanded our car-sharing service to Germany, Latvia and Lithuania. Research indicates that a single shared car can replace up to 18 private vehicles.

Furthermore, over 80% of our car-sharing customers say they’ve postponed purchasing a new car. Over 60% of those who sold their cars cited Bolt Drive as a significant factor.

This all shows the potential of car-sharing services in reducing private car usage, congestion, and traffic-related pollution.

Teslas and other EVs

We launched Tesla electric vehicles with select ride-hailing fleets in Tallinn to help drivers and cities transition towards electric vehicles.

We’re employing various strategies to boost EV adoption in ride-hailing fleets, like raising awareness, facilitating access to financing, and offering dedicated incentives.

We also collaborate with cities, driver communities, and EV charging companies to address electrification challenges.

Our €500 million pledge in Africa

In February 2023, we pledged to invest €500 million in our African operations over the next 2 years.

The funds are used to expand our services in Africa, create opportunities for over 300,000 new drivers and couriers to join the platform, and add electric vehicles to the platform.

Stay tuned for more exciting announcements!

The Bolt accelerator programme

We invested €25,000 to help Nigerian driver community members get their ideas off the ground.

Our accelerator programme, Bolt Den, provides a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs within the Bolt driver community. 1,600 driver partners applied for the programme, and seed funding was granted to 10 ideas, which included:

An app connecting users with on-the-go mechanics and towing services
Designing and assembling electric bikes
Transforming petrol-operated vulcanising machines to solar energy
Converting petrol cars to use compressed natural gas (CNG)

Reducing food waste

We continued to reduce food waste at Bolt Market, our grocery delivery service.

Our ‘Save me’ category offers customers a 40% discount on items approaching their best-before dates, significantly cutting down on food destined for disposal. Currently, less than 1,5% of total sales comprise unsellable products, and we’re working on decreasing the number even more.

In Estonia, consumable but unsellable items are given to FoodLoop and Toidupank. In 2023, we donated over €70,000 worth of food at retail prices — mainly fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy, and eggs.

New safety features and initiatives

We rolled out several safety-related features and initiatives this year.

The new trip safety monitoring and audio trip recording features help identify potential safety incidents during rides.

And we enhanced micromobility safety through the scooter rider academy, our AI-based parking verification feature Park Assist+, the Reckless Rider Score, and a micromobility safety committee.

Inclusive mobility

We invest in inclusive shared mobility — showcased by our partnership with RTB, which helps visually impaired people navigate the streets safely.

And in March 2023, we surveyed 2,000 women in Europe and Africa who have never been drivers. We found that only 7.2% of those women had considered driving as a way to make money.

Since then, we’ve launched a €2.5 million investment programme to raise women’s awareness of earning opportunities and incentives, e.g., the Women to Women category, female-only fleets, safer driving schools, and accounting support.

As a result, in 2023, we’ve seen over 30% year-on-year growth in active female driver partners.

Risk management and governance

Thirdly, we established an ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) committee to help with our sustainability goals.

This committee oversees our sustainability initiatives and ensures they align with our broader mission.

We’ve begun preparing for EU sustainability reporting, further demonstrating our dedication to transparency and accountability.

Joining the Science-Based Targets initiative

We’re thrilled to announce we also joined the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

SBTi is a recognised global standard for climate action, and our participation signifies our commitment to setting and achieving science-based targets to reduce carbon emissions.

We’re currently in the process of getting our near and long-term goals assessed by the SBTi and hope to share news on this soon.

Thanks for helping us make a difference

As we wrap up this year, we’re excited about the progress of our sustainability journey.

Our commitment to reducing GHG emissions, enhancing safety, and supporting a more sustainable future is stronger than ever, and we look forward to sharing more updates in the future.
Until then, we’d like to express gratitude for your support in this crucial mission towards a greener, safer, and better world.

The Bolt 2023 sustainability wrap-up

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