The City of Charles Sturt has been building a culture of active travel among its staff through its Smart Movers program.

The Department of Infrastructure and Transport assisted the City of Charles Sturt to survey their staff about their current travel habits, what would motivate them to travel differently and what might be deterring them. Based on the survey results, the Smart Movers program was designed to encourage staff to move more and drive less.

Smart Movers was launched at a lunch time presentation. This was an opportunity to feed back some of the survey results to staff, and challenge them to reduce their car use and increase their active travel - even if it was only once a month. Staff were also invited to sign up to offerings such as one-on-one consultations, cycle training sessions and travel planning resources to help them overcome their barriers to active transport.

The City of Charles Sturt knew that a public commitment can be a powerful tool for behaviour change, so when staff attending the launch signed up for an offering, they were encouraged to make a pledge to change their travel behaviour; for example 'Walk every day and ride my bicycle at least twice each month'. These staff became 'fledgling pledglings', and had their photo taken with their written pledge. These photos formed a 'pledge wall' which was placed in a high traffic area in the main Council office - reminding pledgers of their commitment, and encourage other staff to make their own pledge and 'join the flock'.

To encourage cycling to work in particular, City of Charles Sturt ran a number of events and training sessions. They encouraged staff to take part in Ride 2 Work Day, and in the lead up ran a 'bring and fix' session where staff could bring along their bikes to spruce them up ready for the day. Cycling safety courses were also offered to help boost the confidence of staff nervous about riding on the road. Importantly each of these events were used to encourage more staff to become 'fledgling pledglings' and make the commitment to ride to work regularly.

Environmental manager Mark Hannan says that a culture of active and sustainable travel is slowly building in the organisation, with word of mouth leading to more 'fledgling pledglings'. Management is helping to build the culture by making regular space on their team meeting agendas to discuss active travel - as well as making their own pledges. The Council is now looking to establish pledge walls in other Council offices to continue to grow the flock.