How Voi contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals – SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

Collaboration is needed to reach our ambitions for a sustainable future

The UN’s 2030 Agenda’s last goal looks at how we will achieve the 16 other goals. Sustainable Development Goal 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ acknowledges that building a sustainable future and tackling global challenges cannot be done by one single actor or sector.

As the proverb goes:

‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’

It will require government, academia, non-profits, interest groups, communities and private actors to join forces and work in concert to forge a sustainable and equitable future.

Voi stands for collaboration

Since day one, we have been convinced that any lasting and positive change must be born out of collaboration, co-creation and dialogue.

We are proud to work closely with cities and public authorities, with interest groups, researchers, and private partners to bring sustainable and safe mobility to everyone. Throughout this SDG series we have profiled a wide variety of partnerships which help us provide a mobility service that brings us closer to our vision of cities made for living, free from noise and pollution, while contributing to 9 of the 17 SDGs.

We are grateful for each of them and the work they do, and are excited to continue to push the boundaries of micro-mobility to bring about a more sustainable world together.

Credit: Street Moves. Voi’s Christina Moe Gjerde participating in a Street Moves (Stockholm) workshop with city officials, transport and urban planners, researchers and other partners to reclaim space from cars for pedestrians and sustainable modes. Read more about the Street Moves project here.

Our trusted partners so far

Public sector:

• Cities: We work in close partnership with over 50 cities across Europe and the communities they represent, working closely with them to reach their sustainability and mobility goals. We only launch a service with the express authorisation from the city (no rogue launches) and we were the first operator to receive a license to operate in a city.

• Public transport authorities: Voi collaborates with over 40 public transport authorities across all our countries. For example, we have close ties with national transport authorities like SJ (Sweden), LNER (UK), Deutsche Bahn (Germany), SBB (Switzerland), as well as local ones like DSB (Denmark) as well as local authorities like RTM in Marseille, France or TfWM in the West Midlands, UK. Together we foster intermodal, improved city accessibility and parking innovations.

• Public authorities: We also collaborate with Police Authorities and also worked with Health Care Authorities and vaccination centres during COVID.

• International cooperation: Voi is a proud member of the ITF Corporate Partnership Board. This allows us to engage with Transport Ministers as well as like-minded companies to drive forward the green transition in transportation.

Voi has developed close partnerships with city officials and public authorities to help reach sustainability and mobility goals. Left: Fredrik Hjelm, CEO and Co-founder of Voi, signing a Letter of Intent with Daniel Helldén, Vice Mayor of Traffic, City of Stockholm. Right: Lucy Yu, Policy Research & Innovation at Voi, Tim Bowles, Mayor of Bath, and Dine Romero, Leader of Bath and NE Somerset Council.

MaaS & user experience:

• MaaS aggregators: We collaborate and integrate with MaaS partners to make sustainable modes seamless and user friendly. We work with CityMapper, FreeNow, we’re a member of the New Mobility Forum hosted by the Association of German Transport Companies. Voi is also a strategic partner to the leading MaaS platform provider Trafi.

• User experience and payments: We have partnered and integrated with Stripe, Klarna and Paypal to streamline the user experience and make our service accessible to as many users as possible, regardless of payment preferences.

Sustainability partners:

• Battery and vehicle lifespan: We are working closely with our suppliers and experts to extend the useful lifespan of batteries and vehicles. For example, we are working with Nortical, who use machine learning to improve battery efficiency, extend lifespan and secure second life applications. We also have recycling partners in each city to help us work towards our zero waste target.

• Sustainable suppliers: We are working with suppliers to increase the rate of recycled materials in our scooters and find more sustainable production methods using renewable energy.

• Sustainability networks: Voi is an active member of the UN Global Compact, Science Based Targets initiative, the WEF’s Zero Emissions Urban Fleet Network, Leaders for Climate Action where we support and contribute to sustainability and climate goals.

Equity and safety partners:

• Safety partners and councils: Voi is the first operator to have partnered with Road Safety Agencies such as VIAS and DriveTech AA to improve and validate our user education.

• Safety innovation partners: We work with partners to solve safety and parking issue, for example with Luna, to develop new AI computer vision technology to protect pedestrians and foster safer riding.

• Interest groups: We collaborate with interest groups like the RNIB, the Norwegian Association for the Blind or Women in Transport to co-develop safe and equitable solutions.

• Research partners: We work with academic and private researchers to better understand and continually improve the social, environmental and mobility impacts of our service. For example, with the Norwegian Institute for Transport Economics (TØI), we partnered on a study to solve parking clutter.

• Equity studies: our close partner 6t has helped develop an Equity Toolkit for micromobility to ensure it is inclusive and accessible to all.

Left: Voi’s partnerships with LUNA has enabled AI guided sidewalk riding detection, Right: Voi has worked with RNIB and the Norwegian Association for the Blind to develop parking infrastructure that is best suited to the needs of the visually impaired.

Our target

Cities made for living, free from noise and pollution – this is our vision and guiding star.

To get there, we focus on:

• Public-private partnerships: grow and strengthen public private partnerships to help accelerate the transition towards net zero transport by increasing access to public transport and to our service and reclaiming city space for living.

• Momentum for the 15-min city movement: We are committed to using our voice and influence for good, to bring greater attention to the need for sustainable mobility, to improve quality of life, health and equity in cities. Read more about our pledge to the 15-minute city movement here.

If you want to find out more about all our work with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, take a look back at our 2019 Sustainability Statement when we began aligning to the goals. We’ve come a long way but there’s so much more to do.

This is the last of nine posts on how we work with nine of the 17 sustainable development goals. You can find the other blog posts in the series here:

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 9: Sustainable Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 13: Climate Action
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production