Getaround x ChangeNOW: Exploring the future of sustainable mobility
In the last week of March, ChangeNOW took place in Paris at the Grand Palais Éphémère next to the Eiffel Tower. It’s one of the world’s biggest sustainability events, focused on highlighting the most innovative and impactful solutions for the planet.
We were honored to be among the 90 companies selected to attend. Overall, more than 35,000 people participated from 130 countries with official delegations from 14 countries. More than 1500 C-level executives were present, as well as 700 journalists and 1200 investors.
Across three days of the event, we spoke, listened, watched and learned so much from change-makers in our own sector and far beyond.
Why was Getaround present at ChangeNOW?
We believe that carsharing has an important role to play in a sustainable future for transport. Platforms such as ours, which connect car owners with those looking to use a car just occasionally, simplify carsharing and over time support the reduction in the number of cars on the road.
According to an Ademe report published in 2022, one shared vehicle on Getaround replaces between 5 and 8 individually owned vehicles. It’s a statistic we share a lot because it demonstrates the huge potential impact of carsharing as it continues to become more and more widespread.
What did we learn at ChangeNOW?
We want to introduce you to some of the friends we made and share their inspiring projects. We hope that learning about them will leave you filled with hope for the future, as it did for us.
Making a move: superstars in the field of transportation
Driveco: Charging up change
Our EU GM Even Tangen Heggernes appeared on a panel focused on solutions for fostering sustainable mobility. He shared the stage with Ion Leahu-Aluas, the co-founder and CEO of Driveco. The French company deploys EV charging stations all over Europe (more than 10,000 across the continent) and helps drivers to find them easily. Their mission is to ‘decarbonise mobility’. Driveco started life as a solar energy company and is equipped to help individuals and businesses to install reliable infrastructure without any need for upfront investment.
Revive Battery: giving batteries a longer life
Revive Battery is a Netherlands-based start-up that uses an algorithmically controlled process to regenerate lead-acid batteries so that they can last up to three times longer. This idea of maximising the resources we already have resonates with our mission, too. Revive’s battery regeneration process uses electrical impulses to break through sulfur crystals allowing batteries to be brought back to life without damage. Not only does this extend the use of each battery, but the process itself is also CO2-efficient. Revive’s CEO Ananta Vangmai also appeared on the panel with our GM, Even.
Enso: saving our air and oceans one tire at a time
Enso Tyres is an AI-powered tire company that uses the latest technology to create maximally efficient tires for Electric Vehicles, it’s also the only B-Corp certified company in the tire industry. We may not think of tires as polluters, but Enso cites research that shows that the tire dust released from skids and harsh stops represents 28% of the primary microplastics floating in our oceans. Founder and CEO Gunnlaugur Erlendsson describes the current use of tires as “the next big environmental scandal that nobody is talking about”. The company proposes a more durable kind of tire, which has been awarded A-grade in the German energy-efficiency rating.
Galian Cycles: reinventing the school run
The French producer of longtail and cargo bikes was one of our co-exhibitors in the mobility section at ChangeNOW. Galian makes beautiful and long-lasting ‘longtail’ bicycles, large enough to transport a whole family and to carry groceries. The idea is that the vehicles could entirely replace a car for city-dwellers, which is something we also help to facilitate at Getaround. Two of the four founders were engineers at Citroën and the company is located in the Janais automobile manufacturing plant south of Rennes, showing their will to blend legacy expertise with modern, sustainable solutions.
Taking inspiration from other sectors
It wasn’t just the mobility movers who impressed us at the event. We also got to meet change-makers and super-creative innovators across all different sectors. Here are a few of our coups de coeur.
2tonnes
2tonnes is an immersive workshop designed to help us imagine our shared future, and work out what action we want to take now to mitigate the effects of climate change. Their name refers to the amount to which each individual must reduce their yearly CO2 emissions in order to limit global temperature rises, as laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The company works with private and public organizations and has facilitated the consciousness-raising workshop for more than 140,000 people in 50 different countries.
Ananas Anam
This innovative UK-company is making sustainable cotton and leather-like textiles by processing pineapple leaf fibers that would usually be a bi-product of the fruit industry. Their material, called Piñatex, is used across different sectors from high-fashion to automobile interiors. The company is certified B-Corporation and works directly with farming cooperatives in the Philippines.
Picker Pals
This Irish organization works with schools across the country to raise children’s awareness of litter and plastic pollution, with over 100,000 children participating so far. The organization distributes ‘picker packs’ to primary school classes and the children take turns using the kit to pick litter and see for themselves its harmful effects on the environment. The idea is to make children responsible for environmental stewardship from an early age, creating behavior change that endures throughout their lives.
