Industry leaders from some of the cycling world’s largest brands have signed a Shift Cycling Culture climate pledge to reduce and report on the impact of operations as part of a drive to bring about more sustainable business practices.
Among the signatories you’ll find the CEOs of Dorel Sports, Schwalbe, Specialized, BMC, Brompton, Assos, Haro Bikes, Rapha, Riese and Müller, among many others.
Shift Cycling Culture has been set up by Lian van Leeuwen, Jane Denyson and Erik Bronsvoort, the latter of whom is the author of From marginal gains to a Circular Revolution, a book detailing how to create a circular economy structure within business.
In an open letter encouraging others to begin to take more responsibility for the impact of business operations on the planet the signatories encourage “transformative change in our industry.”
The climate commitments outlined are:
To Report: We will disclose our own company’s carbon impacts by measuring our Scope 1 & 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, in accordance with the GHG Protocol, by 2023 (latest) and will continue to do so on an annual basis.
To Reduce: We will disclose our plans to reduce our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (against a baseline of no earlier than 2015).
The objective in providing this transparency is to begin to build a cumulative picture of the bike world’s impact on the planet and alongside create goals to collectively reduce that output. Emissions related to production are targeted, but alongside there is a pledge to create longer lasting products, developed a closed loop to recover end of life materials and to work with customers to extend the lifecycle of goods.
“We are proud that cycling plays an important part in decarbonising our world, by enabling people to ride their bikes, enjoy the outdoors and make cities more liveable by taking cars off the streets. At the same time, the way in which we in the cycling industry make and sell products is also contributing to the problem,” writes Shift Cycling Culture.
“We need to change this, but we can’t do it on our own, which is why we’re making an urgent appeal to you, our partners and competitors across the wider industry.”
Those keen to make the pledge must be at founder or CEO level of a business and applications can be made here. Climate change is currently in sharp focus thanks to the COP26 meet in Glasgow where it is widely expect world leaders will thrash out new frameworks to promote sustainability across industry, transport and other areas.
Post time: Nov-08-2021
