LIME’S
NET ZERO ROADMAP

Fact: Transportation is responsible for about a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, even more in developed countries. And personal transport makes up the majority of these emissions. Yes, you read that correctly. Not a great look, but it actually means the space is ripe for a revolution. A recharge, if you will. That’s where Lime comes in.

Since Lime’s inception back in 2017, we’ve been on a mission to build a future where transportation is shared, affordable, and carbon-free. So, in keeping with that mission, we’re proud to be the first company in our industry with a net zero target validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). That’s basically a fancy way of saying we made it *official* and people smarter than us checked that our work aligns with global efforts to prevent temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees C.

Like any epic journey, it’s better if you bring your friends along with you. So we’re sharing our roadmap so that you can follow along, and so that other companies considering this path might be inspired to join us.

I Net zero 101
II the before pic
III defining our goals
IV areas of focus
V where we’re heading

Lime’s Net Zero Roadmap

Net Zero 101
The Before Pic
Defining our Goals
Areas of Focus
Where We’re Heading

Net Zero 101
The Before Pic
Defining our Goals
Areas of Focus
Where We’re Heading

Net zero 101

Achieving net zero basically means decarbonizing the business as much as possible and any remaining carbon we’re emitting is counterbalanced by removing carbon from the atmosphere. Think of it like our invisibility cloak, letting us operate without leaving a trace. To get there, we need to concentrate on two areas:

Lowering Our Emissions

Aka removing carbon from the environment. Think forest expansion and direct air capture.
Removing remaining emissions

Aka removing carbon from the environment. Think forest expansion and direct air capture.

The before pic:

In order to become net zero, we needed a snapshot of where we started. This gave us a baseline to measure our progress so far and the insights to know where we needed to improve.

Our sustainability goals have been in the works for a while (we actually started measuring our greenhouse gas emissions back in 2019 as just a two-year-old company).

Defining our goals

Carbon emissions are measured in 3 buckets or “scopes”: Scopes 1 and 2 include emissions that are most in Lime's control, such as operations vehicles, equipment, and facility energy use. Scope 3 includes emissions from sources not owned or controlled by Lime, but that result from our business operations, such as producing e-scooters and e-bikes, as well as getting them to the cities we serve.

SCOPE 1

Facility heating & operations vehicles
SCOPE 2

Facility Energy Consumption
SCOPE 3

All other emissions including manufacturing, logistics, services, business travel, and employee commutes.

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Target for Scope 1 & 2 Emissions (Absolute Reduction)
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Target for Scope 3 Emissions (Intensity Reduction)

To achieve a validated science-based target, we set ambitious goals for reducing emissions across the business. We’ve committed to reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 90% and Scope 3 emissions intensity by 97% by 2030 from our 2019 baseline. Emissions intensity (CO2 per mile/kilometer ridden) is core to our Scope 3 goal and the clearest way to measure our improvement in delivering more of our service with less carbon.

In order to reach our goal, not only do we need to continue to grow in trips we're providing our riders, but we need to cut a projected 51,000 tCO2 by our interim target in 2028 and 75,575 tCO2 by 2030.

So, now 5 years into our journey, what does Lime need to do to get there?

Share of 2023 emissions by category and emissions reduction needed by 2030

areas of focus

We looked across our business and identified five primary areas of focus for lowering our emissions and then a sixth category for removing any remaining emissions balance.

decarbonizing our operations

It takes a lot of work to effectively manage a fleet of shared e-bikes and e-scooters. From deploying vehicles in hot spots to meet riders where they are to ensuring these vehicles are maintained, managed and regularly charged, our in-city transportation logistics are a big part of running a great service. Right in line with our mission, we’re looking to electrify all of this work to help us reduce emissions across the business. We zeroed in on:

Larger batteries with longer range
Swappable
batteries
Zero emissions operations vans
E-trikes
Efficient route logistics
Efficient route logistics

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of Lime’s operations vehicles are now electric vans and e-trikes

How we’re doing

Since committing to transition to an all-electric operations fleet, 68% of our operations vehicles are now electric vans and e-trikes, an addition of over 150 electric vehicles since 2020. Swappable batteries allow for smaller, more efficient vehicles and reduce operational trips. And our logistics partners are getting in on the action, decarbonizing their own fleets and utilizing e-vans and smaller e-trike vehicles as well.

Decarbonizing our e-scooters and e-bikes

Producing our vehicles and their parts make up our largest carbon footprint – in fact, they made up 61% of our total 2023 emissions. This makes it all the more important that our vehicle production is as green as possible and that they last as long as possible on the streets. Of our vehicles and parts, 42% are major custom aluminum parts, ripe for decarbonization. In addition to strategies to extend their lifetime, we’ve zeroed in on utilizing:

Recycled & non-virgin aluminum
Low- and zero-carbon materials
Post-consumer plastics
Carbon negative materials
Enhanced reuse and refurbishment practices

How we’re doing

Upstream Emissions of Producing Lime Vehicles

31.6%

Rest of Vehicle Parts
41.7%

Custom Aluminum Parts
7.2%

Non-Custom Aluminum Parts
20.2%

Battery Components: Enclosure, Cells, BMS Board, Lock, etc

Circularity and Decarbonizing End of Life

Circular practices reduce waste and demand for materials, lowering carbon. The biggest circularity practice at Lime is the work our rock star operations team around the globe does every day, repairing vehicles, very often with reused parts. There are times we can’t reuse parts, and then they’re recycled. However, we’d always rather reuse first, before recycling: We zeroed in on:

Expanding repair and refurbishment practices with Lime markets
Identifying battery cell 2nd life initiatives
Developing more circular battery cell construction

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of Lime’s vehicles’ components are fully recyclable

How we’re doing

Our teams are better trained and resourced than ever to expand our parts reuse practices in our warehouse. When these parts can’t be reused, more than 97% of our vehicles’ components are fully recyclable. We found that even when batteries aren’t up to the task of moving people anymore, the majority of individual cells often still have plenty of life left. So we’re finding second-life uses for them. Our discoveries in this area have led us to expand 2nd life battery initiatives. They’re both finding that around 80% of battery cells are viable for use in new products, and we love that.

Decarbonizing transportation and logistics

Shipping and transporting our vehicles and parts is our second biggest emissions impact. So to reach our net zero goals, we’ll need to make our logistics as efficient as possible (think smaller volumes) and then decarbonize the modes that move our freight (think carbon-free fuels for sea and ground freight). We zeroed in on:

Efficient pallet shipping design
Elimination of high-emitting air freight
Zero Emissions Vehicles trucking from port to hub
Fully decarbonized ground transportation via train or truck
Decarbonized cargo shipping options

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of Lime's port-to-hub trucking is now decarbonized

How we’re doing

We began shipping North American freight from ports to our distribution centers on zero-emissions trucks and in Europe these trucks are using waste vegetable fuels, reducing carbon by 90%. We’ve started rooting out the need for high-emissions air shipping, and with really good success in 2024, but decarbonizing freight logistics is tough. We’re highly dependent on this industry decarbonizing, and we still have a long way to go.

Carbon impact of shipping by mode in 2023 (tCO2)

Total ton-MILE shipped by mode (2023)

Decarbonizing Warehouses

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of Lime’s warehouses and offices are powered by renewable electricity

How we’re doing

Since we first started offering shared electric vehicles, we made a commitment to charging them on 100% renewable energy. We extended that commitment to powering our facilities. But now we need to decarbonize further. For example, by finding ways to heat facilities with zero carbon sources. We zeroed in on:

removing carbon

Think of carbon removals as the “net” in net zero. Once you reduce carbon as much as possible, the remaining CO2 can be removed. This includes nature-based approaches, like restoring forests or peatlands, or through technologies including direct air capture and storage. In order to achieve net zero, after aggressive carbon reductions, we’ll need to remove carbon from the environment to offset the small remaining balance of our carbon footprint. (Think about the business trip on a plane that hasn’t yet converted to Sustainable Aviation Fuel, for example.)

where we’re heading

Through our efforts thus far, we’ve already reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 65% on our path to 90%. And we’ve cut the carbon intensity of our Scope 3 emissions by 55%. You’ll see the combined impact of those efforts below. We're fully committed to measuring our carbon footprint and sharing where we’re at each and every year. Keep your eyes on this page as we take you along on our epic road trip toward net zero.

All scopes intensity reduction (CO2e/KM)

LIME’S
NET ZERO ROADMAP

Net zero 101

The before pic:

Defining our goals

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