This summer, we took part in Kilometrikisa, a playful cycling competition between work communities, departments, organizations, clubs, or any kind of team you want. The purpose is to track down cycled kilometers during a certain timeline, this year it was between May 5th and September 22nd.

Did you know that we in Innokas have actually participated in this competition for several years? Year by year, the number of kilometers and participants has been growing, and this year we made a new record! We had the same number of bicyclists (17 people) as last year but ended up cycling almost 2000 km more, totaling 19 218 km! That makes about 1068 km per person. Nice job!

Minna Lahtinen, the captain of the team, has been organizing the race at Innokas and is a true biker herself. She has been on the competition team since 2018 and during the years, she has built more experience and added cycled kilometers every year. “Cycling is an easy way to move from place to place. You can leave straight from the house and enjoy the changing view”, she tells. 

Minna explains how being part of the competition has changed her: “My habits have changed a lot – the competition has truly lowered the threshold to go by bike. Nowadays I often choose a bike instead of a car and even cycle my work trips which are approximately 20 km back and forth. Biking to work in the morning when the sun is rising is just an incredible feeling!”

“I have seen the same change also in my coworkers. Many have joined the biking team and everybody on the team has grown their cycled kilometers every year. Many have gotten the benefit bike which Innokas offers for employees”, Minna tells.

“At first my coworker encouraged me to participate, and now we have encouraged others. The competition motivates you when you track down kilometers. As a little competitor myself, when you see your coworker’s kilometers go ahead of yours, you have no other choice but to go for a long bike ride to take the lead again”, Minna adds with laughter.

Minna Lahtinen and Päivi Pelasoja participated in a midnight cycling event in Oulu night (108 km), which collected funds for the children’s cancer foundation and Sylva Ry.

“Even though it is a competition in the end it’s not about winning. It is about participating and getting excited and choosing a bike as a way to travel. The support and inspiration of coworkers is also a big part of the competition.”

Sounds fun and important nowadays. Just with this competition and cycled kilometers, we in Innokas saved 1345 liters of gasoline and 3362 kg of CO₂. And if we have permanent changes in the habits like Minna did, the result we get is more valuable.

How about next year? Can we challenge more people in Innokas to join the competition and get a new record again?

Our people are the biggest resource we have and the key to our success in everything we do. We want to take care of our employees and be sure that people are being well. As our values say we want to be responsible and make the work more meaningful in every aspect we can. If you want to know more about working in Innokas, read career stories or know about the benefits such as the bike benefit, go ahead and take a look at our career site.