Have you seen some green motorized electric scooters in your city? Not yet? Well, they might arrive sooner than you think. Lime is one of those companies that deal with renting dockless scooters and bikes. The premise is simple: you rent a motorized scooter, or bike, using your credit card, you hop on, seamlessly get to your destination in an eco-friendly way then leave the two-wheeled contraption anywhere for the next client to pick it up.

Lime actually announced this week that they will become a carbon-neutral company, as in they will have no carbon footprint. They will buy renewable energy from a company called NativeEnergy as well as local utilities to recharge the scooters and bikes. However, customers can also recharge them at home if they rent them for an extended period of time. The popularity of this idea has seen Lime spread its operations into Europe and, recently, up north into Canada.

Remember when you used to take a bike ride using a bike offered by the municipality in exchange of a dime? All you then had to do was to return to another bike park to get your money back. Nowadays, the idea has evolved, and people are flocking to rent electric scooters and bikes from companies such as Lime.

The scooters are seen all over the U.S. and, now, also in Canada and in major European countries. "Over the past several months, we have spent time in Waterloo to understand how our Lime-S e-scooters can help this progressive city reach its smart transportation goals," said Lime Vice President of Strategic Development Andrew Savage. We are committed to meeting the unique needs of cities across Canada and are excited to continue expanding our global footprint."

Lime thus becomes the first company of its kind to begin operations in Canada. The idea's success wasn't, though, spared of issues as, back in the U.S., San Francisco temporarily banned all scooter sharing companies earlier this year after many customers left the scooters in illegal areas. Since then, the city conceived a permit program which ultimately saw Lime leave the city. Other cities came up with designated drop zones for the scooters and bikes, to keep things in check.

Besides the matter of leaving the scooters in random unadvisable places, another issue arose from the fact that they travel on the sidewalk, often irritating pedestrians who dislike having someone on a motorized scooter woosh by at ten mph. At the same time, the scooters aren't allowed to travel on the roads, so the sidewalk remains the sole option in areas where there are no bicycle pads.

In any case, the move towards electric scooters is a good one in the big congested urban areas of the world. "Lime is a mission-driven company, built on the principles of sustainable cities," said Savage. This initiative helps us deepen our environmental commitment, and empowers our riders to make a difference, knowing that each of their scooter or e-bike rides will be carbon free. Our goal has always been to transform the way people move in cities through greener alternatives, and we’re proud to take this next step towards a more sustainable future.”

According to Mashable, Lime will achieve carbon neutrality by also buying "carbon offsets to balance out the emissions that come from its operations and management fleet, like the trucks and other vehicles that go out to fix and replace damaged bikes and scooters." What this means, in simpler terms, is that the company's still producing plenty of CO2, it just buys carbon offsets to balance it all out. Basically, as Scientific American pointed out, "it all depends on where the electricity comes from."

Further reading

Read more electric car news.