Get on your bike - and we'll help

A company in north western France is doing its bit for the environment, encouraging fitness among its workers and getting some good PR into the bargain.

In a move to boost its green credentials the company, Salmson, is offering more than just empty rhetoric to persuade its employees to switch from four wheels to two, and to cycle to and from work rather than take the car. It's actually providing them with pedal power in the shape of course of a bike.

The scheme is a simple one. Salmson, based in the town of Laval on the border between the two departments of Brittany and Normandy and one of the country's leading suppliers of pumping systems for water, heating and industry, has offered its 700 employees the use of the bicycles - free of charge.

In exchange for sticking to the terms of a "moral contract" by agreeing to use the bike every other day and making sure they abide by the rules of the highway code, employees will basically be able to use the bikes as and when they like, as though they were their own - during work and leisure time.

They'll also be provided with a padlock and a fluorescent yellow jacket.

So far just 50 people have taken the company up on its offer - mainly those who live within easy travelling distance. But Salmson is looking to extend the project in its effort to get people peddling.

For those who don't sign up, the company says it also wants to put in place an official system of car-pooling - not exactly de rigueur for either employer or employee here in France.

The timing probably couldn't have been better. Summer has finally arrived, the days are longer and the price hike at the petrol pumps has left many people counting the centimes in their pockets just a little more closely than before.

Of course the initiative won't do Salmson's image as a responsible and aware employer any harm either. And it'll get a spot of advertising too as the red bikes are clearly marked with the company's logo.

It might just be a small gesture on the part of one firm's efforts to reduce global warming and go green, but there again from little acorns grow......