Cycling is commonly held up as a straightforward and efficient solution to scale back emissions to assist curtail the devastating results of local weather change.
You don’t must look far to identify examples of this. Cycling turned a speaking level at COP26, the place many teams and people at the summit had been espousing the potential of cycling as a low-emissions mode of transport, even when it wasn’t on the official agenda.
But there’s a drawback – in comparison with different sectors, the cycling industry has been sluggish to handle (and even acknowledge) its personal affect.
While the act of driving a motorbike is low affect, the narrative round cycling and the local weather not often acknowledges the environmental hurt attributable to the extraction of supplies, the manufacturing of bikes and the delivery of merchandise round the world.
Throw the relentless growth of latest bikes, clothes and merchandise into the combine and the drawback is even worse.
There are, after all, many examples of cycling firms growing the quantity of recycled supplies of their merchandise and shifting in the direction of carbon offsetting. But a scarcity of transparency about emissions and of stable commitments to lowering environmental affect could make the cycling industry really feel behind when in comparison with different sectors.
But is that this altering? And is the cycling industry lastly getting real about its environmental affect?
This 12 months, there have been a variety of initiatives from firms and organisations that counsel the tide could possibly be turning.
Collective commitments
One of the most notable acts was an open letter signed by 15 cycling firms and launched simply earlier than COP26.
Organised by Shift Cycling Culture – a non-profit working to make the way forward for cycling extra sustainable – the Climate Commitment letter binds signees to 2 main commitments.
First, they are going to disclose their Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gasoline emissions by 2023. Scope 1 and Scope 2 consult with emissions direct from owned or managed sources and oblique emissions, comparable to these from vitality suppliers.
Second, the dedication requires manufacturers to cut back their CO2 emissions by 55 per cent by 2030.
This mirrors the goal outlined by the European Union in April this 12 months, which was up to date from the unique dedication made as a part of the Paris Agreement in 2016 to cut back emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, in comparison with 1990 ranges.
The thought for the letter germinated from talks Shift Cycling Culture started with folks in the cycling industry round this time final 12 months.
Jane Dennyson, one among Shift Cycling Culture’s administrators, says they put out an open request on social media for folks in the industry to affix a Zoom name to speak about sustainability in cycling.
“At that point,” Dennyson explains, “we just wanted to get a bit of a benchmark of where people were at. We were very aware that there is a massive industry that sits behind the bicycle and everything that goes with it that wasn’t really addressing its negative impact at the time. So we wanted to know how we could inspire change in this area.”
With about 100 folks on the name, from product designers to managers and folks working in communications, Dennyson says they’d each space of the industry represented.
Asked what challenges there have been in addressing sustainability inside their organisations, two factors raised by these on the name stood out to Shift Cycling Culture.
One was that the industry lacks a collective physique and the different was that sustainability was not seen as a strategic concern.
Dennyson says Shift Cycling Culture “‘arrogantly” thought they might kind this out.
“We reached out to as many leaders of big brands as we could and said, ‘will you join us and the world’s biggest cycling companies to talk about sustainability and what it means for business from a strategic point of view?’”
This led to Shift Cycling Culture main bi-monthly conferences with chief executives from firms comparable to Rapha, Schwalbe, Assos, Brompton and Riese & Müller to facilitate conversations round motion on local weather change and to emphasize its significance for enterprise.
Dennyson says the group additionally invited an funding banker alongside to one among the conferences “who basically said, ‘we don’t look at companies that aren’t addressing sustainability because it’s too much of a risk if they’re not looking ahead and thinking about what the future looks like for them’.”
![Simon Mottram, founder and chief executive officer of Rapha Racing Ltd., poses for a photograph following an interview at the Rapha cycle club on Brewer Street in London, U.K., on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. To keep ahead of the competition, Mottram says he wants to take cycling from its current status as an almost-fringe pursuit to something far more mainstreamand sell many more 5 riding jackets and 0 leather Simon Mottram, founder and chief executive officer of Rapha Racing Ltd., poses for a photograph following an interview at the Rapha cycle club on Brewer Street in London, U.K., on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. To keep ahead of the competition, Mottram says he wants to take cycling from its current status as an almost-fringe pursuit to something far more mainstreamand sell many more 5 riding jackets and 0 leather](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2021/12/GettyImages-628701314-157f1ec-e1638809044198.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413)
Dennyson says Simon Mottram, who lately introduced he’s stepping down as Rapha’s CEO, additionally spoke about his personal private journey in regard to local weather change and the confluence of local weather motion and enterprise.
“The penny finally dropped,” for Mottram, Dennyson says, “that we’re not even going to have a planet to do business on.”
While many will see such an announcement as quite self-interested and blind to the devastating results of local weather change already confronted by folks throughout the globe, the realisation of the significance of local weather motion from a enterprise perspective did get firms pondering about what they might do.
Fast ahead to June this 12 months and the manufacturers Shift Cycling Culture was speaking to wished to know what steps they might take.
In order to cut back emissions, one main space cycling firms – and firms throughout all sectors – want to handle is provide chains.
“Basically, 95 per cent of the negative impact of their organisations comes from the supply chain. So in order for them to really address the impact, we need their supply chain to change,” says Dennyson.
![1416587415154-nva6dcnbgd2-72aad70 A view of the factory floor, from near the entrance. It’s a small, efficient operation](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1416587415154-nva6dcnbgd2-72aad70-e1638809174181.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413)
Shift Cycling Culture reached out to some large suppliers, who mentioned their clients weren’t asking them to do something in a different way.
It then went again to the manufacturers, suggesting they draft a letter as a method to indicate firms of their provide chains that they had been getting their very own homes so as – a obligatory step earlier than asking their prime 10 suppliers to begin lowering emissions.
Dennyson says that one criticism the letter has acquired is the give attention to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, and the omission of Scope 3 emissions. These cowl emissions attributable to provide chains and merchandise when they’re in use, and are included in targets for net-zero.
This does appear odd contemplating the admittance of the large affect of provide chains from Dennyson and in the letter itself.
However, Dennyson says “really, we brought this down to the lowest common denominator, so as many companies as possible – wherever they are in their journey – can get on board.”
Due to the decentralised nature of recent manufacturing and the giant numbers of suppliers concerned in provide chains, calculating Scope 3 emissions – not to mention chopping them – is a big activity.
But, Dennyson says since the letter was launched 30 extra firms have signed it, together with suppliers, so the tactic of manufacturers displaying willingness first appears to have labored.
How will the manufacturers scale back emissions?
What will the signees of the Climate Commitment letter do to cut back their emissions by 55 per cent by 2030?
The letter says they are going to scale back emissions associated to manufacturing; create merchandise that can last more; work with customers to increase the lifetime of merchandise; and develop a closed-loop system to recuperate supplies.
Dennyson says the concrete motion manufacturers will take to realize these targets will develop into obvious in the end: “In terms of reduction, that really comes from the carbon report,” which the manufacturers have agreed to launch in 2023.
This is as a result of, “you take your top-impact areas and dig into the hot spots, break those down, and ask if there are any quick wins. For instance, if they switch their factories to renewable energy, that’s going to have a massive impact.”
Trek’s sustainability report
![98th Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2018 - Stage 2 Red Trek bikes lined up](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2021/12/GettyImages-935312874-7f584a5.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413)
Trek has independently begun the same journey, giving a way of what we might count on.
The producer launched its first sustainability report in July this 12 months, offering an audit of a single 12 months of Scope 1, 2 and three emissions.
Trek isn’t the first model to raise the lid on the carbon footprint of its actions.
There is an oft-cited Specialized report from 2014 – which one would hope is now firmly outdated contemplating the model’s environmental commitments – and a report from Riese & Müller, one among the manufacturers that signed the Climate Commitment open letter.
However, Trek’s report is the most up-to-date and is a uncommon instance of a giant cycling model outlining severe commitments to lowering emissions.
Eric Bjorling, Trek’s director of name, is upfront about the place the cycling industry holds in relation to emissions:
“The bike industry sometimes gets a bit of a free pass on environmentalism. We’re not the oil or automobile industries – or a better-known perpetrator, for want of a better word. But we’re the bike industry, and there’s still a very real carbon footprint there.”
Trek labored with WAP Sustainability Consultancy, which checked out carbon emissions throughout the firm’s exercise.
“They did a life-cycle analysis of a lot of stuff we were working on,” Bjorling explains, “just so we could consider where we were at as a company, and where our biggest opportunities lay for improvement.”
Similar to the sequence of occasions outlined in the Climate Commitment letter, the report then led Trek to formulate a 10-step plan to cut back emissions.
In the report, Trek says it goals to cut back air freight by 75 per cent in comparison with pre-2020 ranges by 2024.
The model is seeking to consolidate orders to retailers into single shipments the place doable by 2024. It additionally needs to change to 100 per cent renewable vitality for its owned amenities by 2023.
Trek additionally says it’s establishing the Trek Foundation to guard locations folks trip and to assist construct infrastructure, which ought to in principle assist encourage folks to make use of bikes extra.
Trek is eager to focus on the way it has already begun taking steps in the direction of these targets, saying it has began consolidating shipments and utilizing renewable vitality, in addition to lowering plastic.
The report may be seen as a set of commitments in addition to a chance for the model to shine a optimistic mild on what it’s already doing.
What is the carbon footprint of Trek bikes?
![Trek Fuel EX 9.7 Trek Fuel EX 9.7](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2020/03/Trek-Fuel-EX-97-01-25cfbe3.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413)
A significant focus of the report is the carbon footprint of producing 4 completely different bikes: the Trek Marlin; Trek Madone; Trek Fuel EX; and the Trek Rail.
Bjorling says this collection of bikes represents the bell curve of Trek’s manufacturing.
The Marlin has the smallest footprint, of 116kg CO2e per bike, and Bjorling says it’s akin to Trek’s different entry-level bikes.
At the different finish of the spectrum, the Rail – a full-suspension electrical mountain bike with a motor and battery – has the largest footprint at 229kg CO2e per bike.
Trek says that attributable to the truth bicycles can be utilized as an emissions-cutting type of transport, you may offset the carbon footprint of its bikes by driving them as an alternative of utilizing a automotive.
To reinforce this, the report highlights the determine of 430 miles, the common distance you’d must cycle to offset the footprint of one among Trek’s bikes.
While 430 miles will not be a terrific distance, that is fairly a complicated method of the subject – not many individuals are going to be utilizing a Trek Madone as an alternative of a automotive for his or her commute or grocery store journey.
![2021 Trek Madone SLR Project One paint job 2021 Trek Madone SLR Project One paint job](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2020/09/20200915_SB_5DSR_MG_3039-dff67a3.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413)
Bernhard Isopp, lecturer and researcher in the division of science, know-how and society at the Technical University of Munich, who specialises in local weather change communication and coverage, has overtly criticised the Trek report. He has queried the give attention to high-end bikes, which he says represent luxurious merchandise.
“There’s always this concern about greenwashing and turning sustainability discourse into a marketing opportunity,” says Isopp, “and I think in some regards Trek went in that direction when there are clearer ways they could have shown their commitment to sustainability than doing the carbon footprint of a £10,000 mountain bike.”
To spotlight the subject with saying a motorbike can offset carbon emissions when it doesn’t really substitute a automotive, Isopp suggests one other comparability:
“It wouldn’t make sense to compare the CO2 [emissions] per kilometre travelled on downhill skis to cars and to then say the skis are more environmentally friendly.”
But Bjorling argues the statistic is basically simply to get folks pondering:
“We know that most people who buy a Rail are going to be driving them to a trail and riding them. What we were trying to do there was focus on consumer education.”
Away from shifting carbon offsetting onto the finish client, Trek says growing the quantity of recyclable materials in its merchandise might result in a big discount in emissions.
Trek lists a variety of smaller elements comparable to bottle cages, computer systems and handlebar grips that use alternate supplies, however bigger objects are absent.
According to the report, the most polluting a part of the bike tends to be the body. But in relation to chopping the emissions of body manufacturing, the image the report and Bjorling paints is of enterprise taking priority over sustainability.
The report says the share of recycled materials in its aluminium frames has really dropped attributable to the want to fulfill client demand.
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Late model Trek Madone frames on a molding rack; these frames if and when warrantied will be recycled](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/1303416121073-1w1f31i3t8qdi-02cbfef-e1638809769925.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413)
Bjorling additionally highlights the difficulties confronted with carbon fibre:
“The factor about recycling carbon fibre is it’s actually arduous to do. There aren’t that many firms on the market.
“We worked with a company in the United States who would take carbon fibre – like warranty frames and trimmings from the manufacturing sector – and they were able to break it down and do injection moulding for car parts and things like that.”
The drawback, in the finish, Bjorling says, is “they couldn’t make it a sustainable business.”
For comparability, Dennyson says Shift Cycling Culture has had conversations with a few of the largest bike builders who’re alternate supplies, however emphasises it’s “early days”.
“It would be nice to accelerate the whole process,” Dennyson says, “and make sure that this isn’t happening in 2035, and it’s happening next year.”
So are cycling manufacturers doing sufficient?
![Views of A POSCO Steel Mill Ahead of 4Q Earnings Cyclist silhouetted in foreground with factories in background](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2021/12/GettyImages-632543668-d1ad01d.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413)
The image the Climate Commitment letter and the Trek sustainability report paints is one among an industry lastly starting to acknowledge its environmental affect, having lengthy escaped scrutiny attributable to the emission-busting potential of what it makes.
On some ranges, that is unavoidable: there is no such thing as a getting away from local weather change, nonetheless inexperienced your product could or will not be. As Isopp places it, “they have to say something. What else could they do at this point?”
How efficient these commitments show to be has rather a lot to do with urgency and scale, in addition to the willingness of manufacturers to alter and to be accountable.
There is a temptation to name for change now, however the time-frame outlined in the Climate Commitment feels cheap when you think about Trek started the journey to create its report and plan a number of years in the past.
Seeing manufacturers come along with a collective imaginative and prescient for lowering emissions can also be promising.
On one degree, having manufacturers working collectively might result in the germination of an industry physique to deal with emissions. On one other, it might allow manufacturers to tackle essential provide chain emissions, which, attributable to their complexity, could require rivals to work collectively.
Working in the direction of shared goals can even make it simpler to carry manufacturers accountable and for direct comparability between comparable firms, versus folks wanting outdoors the industry for perspective on how cycling manufacturers are doing.
However, there are nonetheless many troublesome inquiries to reply, that are pertinent to cycling, and for different industries too.
Much of the cycling industry is pushed by a want to create ever sooner, lighter and better-performing merchandise.
“With every innovation at the moment,” Dennyson says, “you just make things out of date, and you’re left with a shed full of parts.”
While efforts can and needs to be made to make elements extra cross-compatible and to search out methods to recycle and convey supplies again into manufacturing, the problem of recycling supplies comparable to carbon fibre and electrical bike batteries poses an enormous problem.
![2021 Fairlight Strael 3.0 review 2021 Fairlight Strael 3.0 review](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2021/06/2021-Fairlight-Strael-3.0-12-b85f70f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413)
It is unfeasible to think about a model comparable to Trek giving up carbon fibre, however consciously shifting to supplies comparable to aluminium alloy and metal that may be recycled may show a necessity quite than a selection, even when reaching inexperienced metal is likely to be a monumental activity.
There can also be no getting away from the truth manufacturers perpetuate a cycle of neophilia and relentless consumption, so issues do have to alter, they usually have to alter quick.
Even although yearly product cycles could fly in the face of creating extra sustainable and longer-lasting merchandise, Dennyson says this mannequin might doubtlessly play an element in chopping emissions.
Dennyson explains that manufacturers “are constantly in an innovation cycle because they are looking to bring out the newest model every year.”
According to Dennyson, the velocity of innovation might lend itself to the bike industry rapidly growing extra recyclable merchandise to imply much less materials finally ends up out of date and wasted.
While the Climate Commitment letter, and Trek’s report, are welcome, they need to actually be handled as simply the starting.
“When it comes to the climate,” Isopp says, “what’s most crucial right now is really short-term, concrete actions.”
Will the manufacturers who signed the letter launch the promised reviews in 2023 and construct motion plans off the again of them? Will Trek fulfill its 10 guarantees? Will, quite hopefully, the innovation cycles manufacturers function in ship sustainable manufacturing processes? And will all of this occur by 2050, the date outlined for net-zero by the Paris Agreement?
While we’ve got an thought of what a few of these actions may seem like, we’ll have to attend and see whether or not these items occur and if the bike industry lives as much as its commitments. But in the meantime, it is likely to be value conserving one proverb in thoughts: “to know and not do is to not know.”