ActiveScore ModeScore

Make Every Journey a Healthy One

Sustainable transport is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s essential. Improve tenant wellbeing, enhance ESG, and support active lifestyles all while increasing your asset value. Certify your development with ActiveScore or ModeScore and lead the way.

Underground bike parking area with concrete walls, stairs, and white bicycle symbols on wall.

Got a question about ActiveScore? Get in touch with us here.

What is ActiveScore?

ActiveScore is the world’s leading certification for evaluating and enhancing active travel infrastructure within buildings. It’s built specifically to assess how well a development supports walking, cycling, running, and micromobility — through infrastructure like cycle parking, showers, lockers, drying rooms, signage, security, and amenities.

Designed in collaboration with Transport for London and major landlords, ActiveScore provides a structured, reliable benchmark to improve and promote your building’s transport-readiness. Whether you’re developing new or upgrading old, ActiveScore makes it easy to deliver impact on wellbeing, sustainability, and occupier experience — all with minimal capital cost.

What about ModeScore?

Its counterpart, ModeScore, goes one step further — assessing how well your building supports all sustainable transport modes, including public transit, EVs, deliveries, and micromobility. Whether you’re certifying an existing building or designing a new development, Welscape can help you benchmark, enhance, and promote your building’s performance.

What’s the Difference? ActiveScore vs ModeScore

Focus Areas

ActiveScore focuses solely on active travel within the built environment — assessing how well a building supports walking, cycling, running, and micromobility. It evaluates things like secure cycle parking, showers, lockers, wayfinding, repair stations, and community engagement. It’s ideal for office buildings, fit-outs, and refurbishments where the goal is to enhance end-of-trip amenities and wellbeing with minimal intervention.

ModeScore, by contrast, offers a broader certification framework. It includes everything from ActiveScore and goes further to assess how well a building integrates with sustainable transport at large. This means evaluating public transport proximity and quality, electric vehicle (EV) charging, private vehicle strategy, car-share schemes, delivery logistics, and site-wide accessibility.

Use Cases

ActiveScore is perfect for offices, retrofits, and workplace fit-outs where the priority is enhancing end-of-trip amenities and creating quick, high-impact wellbeing wins.

ModeScore suits larger, more complex developments — including mixed-use schemes, masterplans, or ESG-focused portfolios — that need to evaluate and optimise sustainable transport as a whole.

Scoring Approach

ActiveScore uses a 100-point system across 18 topics, while ModeScore is scored out of 120 points across four core categories: public transport, private vehicles, active travel, and site-wide mobility. Both offer region-specific benchmarks, and neither requires mandatory criteria — meaning every building can participate and improve.

Each certification is valid for three years, can be assessed remotely, and allows you to upgrade your score at any time.

Certification Structure

Both certifications follow a three-year cycle, are assessed remotely, and allow for upgrades throughout the certification period. Importantly, neither scheme has mandatory topics — meaning any project, regardless of stage or size, can participate and improve. Region-specific benchmarks ensure fairness and contextual relevance whether you’re certifying in London, Lisbon, or Limassol.

Benefits of ActiveScore

Enhanced Wellbeing and Retention for Employers

Employers are under growing pressure to support staff wellbeing and offer benefits that align with healthier lifestyles. Certified facilities make it easier for employees to cycle, run, or walk to work. This directly supports mental and physical health, reduces stress, and has been shown to decrease sick days. Moreover, the presence of facilities like showers and lockers is increasingly influencing job decisions — especially among younger professionals prioritising wellbeing and environmental values.

Commercial Value for Owners and Developers

Certification isn’t just a badge — it’s a driver of performance. ActiveScore and ModeScore certifications help landlords and developers attract premium tenants, increase top rents, and reduce vacancy periods. Projects with certified transport infrastructure often gain an edge in planning approvals, and the presence of well-designed micromobility facilities is now considered a core design requirement — not an optional extra. In case studies like Castlemead in Bristol, certified upgrades led to an 800% ROI and a 22% uplift in rent.

Everyday Comfort and Value for Tenants

From an occupant perspective, ActiveScore and ModeScore are quality-of-life upgrades. Access to safe, well-lit parking, hot showers, drying rooms, secure lockers, and even bike repair stations transforms how people engage with their buildings. Tenants enjoy reduced transport costs, better health outcomes, and a sense of community through wellness programming like run clubs or cycling events.

Environmental Impact and ESG Alignment

These certifications make a measurable dent in emissions — especially Scope 3 commuting emissions, which often account for the majority of a building’s carbon footprint. Encouraging a shift away from single-occupancy vehicles toward active and shared transport options directly reduces CO₂ and PM2.5 emissions. With features like the Clean Air Calculator, projects can even quantify and report these gains, aligning with WELL, LEED, BREEAM, and GRESB frameworks.

Person with a backpack and rolling suitcase walking along a city train station platform on a rainy day, with a train parked on the left and a ticket booth on the right.

How ActiveScore Works: The Certification Process

At Welscape, we deliver ActiveScore and ModeScore certifications through a streamlined, four-stage process that’s fully remote, highly efficient, and designed to work for both existing buildings and developments in design.

Transparent, Flexible, and Globally Relevant

ActiveScore and ModeScore use quantitative, criteria-based systems that ensure consistency while adapting to local conditions and transport cultures. All assessments are regionally benchmarked to reflect your city’s existing infrastructure, expectations, and climate. This means you’re scored fairly — whether you’re in London, Limassol, or Lisbon.

There are no mandatory requirements, which makes the certification accessible to a wide range of buildings — from brand new developments to 1980s retrofits.

ActiveScore Scoring Breakdown

Each building is scored out of 100 points, across 18 assessment topics. These fall into three main categories:

70% Infrastructure: including secure cycle storage, showers, lockers, wayfinding, lighting, access routes, drying rooms, and look and feel.
20% Engagement Services: such as bike repair stations, cycle training, events, travel support, and communication tools.
10% Future-Proofing: including overprovision, scalability, surveys, travel planning, and innovation.

Certification levels are awarded based on total score:

Certified: 0–39
Silver: 40–59
Gold: 60–79
Platinum: 80–99
Platinum 100: 100 (a perfect score)

Each topic is scored from 0–5 or 0–10 points, with your responses automatically benchmarked against international standards and local policy. The suggestions for improvement are automatically generated and tailored to your project’s stage and region.

Badge icons showing different ActiveScore levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Platinum 100.

Queries about ActiveScore? Get in touch with us here.

Key strategies to consider:

✔ Secure & Inclusive Cycle Storage – Install varied parking for standard bikes, e-bikes, cargo bikes, and scooters, with covered, well-lit, and CCTV-monitored access to boost user confidence.

✔ High-Quality End-of-Trip Facilities – Provide showers, lockers, drying rooms, towel service, and private changing areas to support active commuting and wellbeing.

✔ Repair & Charging Stations – Add tools, pumps, and e-bike charging points to improve maintenance support and future-proof your micromobility offer.

✔ Active Engagement & Events – Run Strava clubs, repair days, travel challenges, and commuter welcome packs to shift behaviour and boost community participation.

✔ Inclusive Design & Accessibility – Design for all users with step-free access, wider bays, mobility scooter storage, DDA-compliant showers, and multilingual signage.

✔ EV & Car Park Strategy – Integrate EV charging, car-share bays, and passive infrastructure to align with decarbonisation targets and reduce private vehicle reliance.

✔ Smart Wayfinding & Communications – Use branded signage, digital info screens, and apps to help occupants navigate, plan, and choose low-carbon travel modes.

✔ Scalable & Future-Proof Planning – Design for growth with adaptable layouts, future survey integration, and readiness for changing transport tech like hydrogen, cargo drones, or last-mile logistics hubs.

A group of runners participating in a race, shown from the knees down, running on a paved street with lane markings.

ModeScore Scoring Structure

ModeScore builds on ActiveScore with a 120-point system spanning four key categories:

Public Transport
Private Vehicles
Active Travel (includes ActiveScore)
Site-Wide Mobility

The scoring remains fully flexible and modular, with quantified recommendations to guide performance improvement. ModeScore is ideal for larger developments, ESG-led projects, and mixed-use schemes seeking to assess and improve their full transport footprint.

Step 1: Information Gathering

We begin by working with you to collect relevant information about your building. This could include floorplans, cycle parking layouts, showers and lockers, occupancy figures, and any supporting documents such as specs, photos, or proposed upgrades. Whether your building is in use or still in planning, we can begin the process with the information available.

Step 2: Preliminary Report

Our team analyses your building against region-specific benchmarks and issues a detailed preliminary assessment report. This includes your provisional score, an overview of existing strengths, and targeted suggestions for improvement. This report acts as a roadmap for future upgrades and can be used to inform design development, marketing, or ESG reporting.

Step 3: Improvement Implementation

You decide whether to implement any of the suggested improvements. These might be small upgrades to infrastructure, engagement services, or design features. We’ll support you with best-practice examples, supplier recommendations, and strategic advice to help reach your target certification level — whether that’s Silver or Platinum 100.

Step 4: Final Certification

Once you’re satisfied with the improvements or ready to certify as-is, we issue your final score and certificate. You’ll also receive access to promotional materials and be listed on the ActiveScore certified buildings directory. Throughout your three-year certification, you can submit evidence of further improvements to update or upgrade your score at no additional cost.

Concrete stairwell with a white handrail on a concrete wall, illuminated by a diagonal strip of bright light from above.

Get in touch

george@welscape.co.uk
+447542341750

George Michael Kakas
Owner @Welscape