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Could you help me find and name some? Both bike and component brands.
Before we begin - I realise this could open a can of worms but I think it would also be interesting to have a conversation around what people consider 'green' or sustainable.
I would say I live a life trying to minimise my impact on the environment and am very conscious of the resources I use/waste I produce and I would also like to try and translate this into any new bikes and bike parts I buy in the future. I realise that the best way I can minimise my impact is to not buy a new bike and, I don't plan to right now either, but sometimes things break and there will be surely others out there ready to buy a new bike who this might also benefit.
When looking through companies 'about us' sections there seems to be very little in terms of the sustainability strategies on most sites (even with larger brands), I guess this could be to do with the mtb industry being relatively new and also the topic not being so prevalent yet. So I wonder if STW can help me find some companies that do have sustainable initiatives. This could include a whole host of things in my opinion, and is probably a question in itself, but some initiatives could include for example; production/building of frames being local to the UK to reduce global shipping needs, using one material over another such a Pole's alu or carbon stance, having certain recycling waste strategies, programs that offset their production, companies that offer lifelong use/warranty and those that don't push their new latest product on your every year etc.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Despite it being a small thing, a good example could be Specialized partnership with Cycle Dog</span>Â , recycling old inner tubes to be used as dog collars.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">It could also be interesting to discuss peoples opinions on certain materials and which might be considered more or less impacting; steel/carbon/titanium/aluminium....?</span>
I'm quite interested to build a little portfolio of sustainable initiatives, recycling programmes, companies that are making an effort to consider their impact on the environment for future reference and hopefully start a thread that gets people talking about the impacts of our industry and what others consider a 'green initiative'.
I believe Chris King aim to be as eco as an anodizer of machined metal jewellery can be.
Edit:
If any company really cared one iota about the environment they wouldn't make anything new and instead insist on people making use of the staggering amount of perfectly serviceable stuff that's already in existence.
This of course is not a sound business model which is why I have no tolerance for any manufacturer who insists that they put the planet first. Such a proclamation is, by definition, bollocks.
Aluminium and other metals are commodities. Manufacturers will buy them from the cheapest supplier who can meet the quality standards, so it won't make any difference what brand bike you buy, the metal components will come from the same sources. It's going to make little difference where it was originally sourced from anyway because there won't be a huge difference in the energy input between different producers. Scrap metal is easy and profitable to recycle, so metal components will mostly get recycled regardless of the bike manufacturer's claimed policies about sustainability.
Carbon frames, plastic, rubber, etc aren't nearly as easy to recycle, but you're really talking about a few kilograms of material, much less than the carbon in a full tank of petrol. Choosing a bike based on a company's marketing department's nonsense about being sustainable is much less useful than leaving the car at home and using a bike as much as you can.
Environmental cycling products?
Pedro's Milk levers: made from recycled HDPE milk bottles. Except I think they stopped making them...
That's about it I think. Someone will be along shortly to tell you steel frames are "more environmentally friendly" than carbon or aluminium, when what they mean is "less damaging"...
Best bicycle based consumer type choice you can make to help the environment?
Probably chop in the car and start riding everywhere, If you do that then the trifling impact of a bike is offset many times over...
The most environmentally conscious bike you can probably use is the one you already own. The most environmentally conscious bike you can buy is one built to last both in terms of reliability (longevity of components as well as repairable/replaceable) as well as concept (no here to today, gone tomorrow concepts or angles), used as a direct replacement for fossil fuel transport.
The least environment form of bike I would imagine is a carbon fibre niche/fad bike that will be discarded in a couple of years for the next niche/fad only used at the weekends when it is thrown in the back of a large family car (50% larger than strictly necessary for day to day use so the owner can do this very trip) and driven half way across the country/continent to be used for pleasure only. Sound familiar to anyone?
In terms of company - I would have thought the best environmental impact initiative a bike manufacturer could offer would be a sponsored trade in scheme where the traded in bikes are refreshed and given away/sold on. Bikes in general are much better than many other consumer goods - they are in the main repairable by replacing reasonably small subassemblies.
interesting article on Pink bike a few months ago.
As others have said:
* not buying things you don't need;
* maintaining things that you already own;
* repairing things you already own;
* buy second hand in preference to new;
* buy stuff that lasts;
* don't follow fads;
* don't drive somewhere to go for a bike ride;
* less damaging consumables (Green Oil, etc);
* steel > aluminium > carbon (?);
* commute by bike.
Grant Peterson, of Rivendell bikes, wrote a great blog post about 'green' cycling years ago, but I'm struggling to find it.
* steel > aluminium > carbon (?);
It's like cutting your toe nails to lose weight though, it might be arguable but it's not really the solution. A bike pays back its initial carbon footprint in about 400miles (vs using an existing car, and includes the co2 produced in western food production), the incremental cost of any material choice is likely to be pretty negligible.
Or to put it another way, I could buy a new bike every fortnight and be less environmentally damaging than my commute.
in terms of environmental cost of production, even bike firms like Giant and Specialized pretty much make bugger all impact in terms of materials when weighed against other industries. (aluminium f'instance is utterly dominated by the canning industry)
IIRC Robin Mather does a deal if your bike has eyelets when it's made, assuming that when it's no longer your prime bike it can become your mudguard clad commuter.
A bike pays back its initial carbon footprint in about 400miles (vs using an existing car, and includes the co2 produced in western food production)
It would be interesting to see if this is absolutely accurate and what is included in that calculation. 400 miles in a car equals circa 115kg of carbon. A kg of aluminium production generates 20kg of carbon. It could be plausible.
Sombering if it is. I've said it before that so many middle class hypocrites bang on about the great unwashed and their attitude to carrier bags yet forget the fact that their waitrose locally sourced organic produce greenwashed lifestyle is funded by at least husband or wife knocking out 30K miles of commuting from their leafy shire to the city then they can't miss getting their soul cleaning done with yoga on a tropical beach twice a year. Transport is the silent killer not the tesco carrier bag and the plastic straw.
bikes are not environmentally friendly. Give up on that idea.
Probably islabike if they get this "return at end of life"/bike rental thing off the ground.
Looks like most of you missed the point but never mind
Clothing:
Vaude
Patagonia
Howies
Paramo
I would also say: ride whatever you can for as long as you cam, and quit n+1
The bike station - recyling and reusing bicycles - thats about as green as it gets
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Looks like most of you missed the point but never mind
With respect I think the topic might have missed the point. Cycle manufacture is not in itself a green activity and any PR/initiative would be seen as a bit shallow. Ethics rather than green credentials could be something to work on mind - to pluck an example from a different sport Ezzy sails (windsurfing) elected to stop using third party manufacturers and opened their own sail loft to ensure the rights of the workers to healthy work conditions and fair pay were respected. Not sure if any bikes firms have done the same thing for the same reasons.
Looks like most of you missed the point but never mind
If "the point" is a guilt appeasing piss in the wind then yes maybe we have.
The idea of being environmentally conscious is very commendable but like as said above it's like cutting your nails to save weight. Even if everyone on here made a serious effort to cut the amount of waste they produce it would make less difference to the world in all our lifetimes than one decent sized factory shutting down for a day.
In fact my patience has run out in the few moments it's taken me to write this. You know what? Shove your sanctimonious crap up yourself, sideways, By all means live in a way that appeases your conscience but don't for a moment think that you can guilt trip me into believing that you're somehow superior because you reuse stuff. If you really cared about "the point" you would have further explained it instead of proclaiming that most of us didn't get it (and sounding like a little bitch in the process).
Cutting your nails to save weight doesn't make any difference but if enough people cut their nails, you save the weight of an entire person. And if that sounds daft, look at it from the other direction- any one person's consumption is basically irrelevant on a world scale and yet it all adds up. If the maths works one way it has to work the other, because it's maths.