The importance of sustainable supply chain training

Up to 95% of a company's carbon emissions take place when extracting, sourcing and producing bike materials and components. To tackle these emissions several leading bicycle industry companies have come together to co-develop a Climate Action Training for Asian suppliers. Experts from some of the founding partners explain their reasons for participation.

Leading bicycle industry companies have joined together to co-develop the Climate Action Training (CAT) programme to drive down greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains. The project partners Accell, Ampler, Canyon, QBP, Rose, Schindelhauer, Schwalbe, Scott and Trek will share their valuable insights and suppliers in the cycling industry will provide input throughout the development process to ensure the course reflects their operational realities. The initiative, co-facilitated by Shift Cycling Culture and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), hopes to create a blueprint for future collaborative projects of the industry. The development of the training program is led by Leadership & Sustainability (L&S) who partners with Fischer, Knoblauch & Co to bring the digital learning expertise.

‘Open exchange with other brands’

“The CAT programme is designed for all companies in the cycling industry. The more it is used by as many companies as possible, the faster our industry reaches the goal of massively reducing emissions and adopting a more responsible supply chain,” states Felix Jahn, Head of CSR, at Schwalbe. He also acknowledges that there are several incentives for participating. “At least indirectly it is financially attractive to participate. The programme will streamline our CAT discussions with our suppliers and help us reach our goals quicker. So far, it’s been an inspiring process and we have gained a deeper understanding of the issues in the supply chain that affect us all. Similarly, the open exchange with other cycling brands has been incredibly valuable.”

Launching in Q2/2024

The training programme is targeted at Asian factories to raise awareness of their critical role in achieving a net zero cycling world. The training will provide foundational knowledge on measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, how to set reduction targets and monitor progress, as well as relevant case studies of potential solutions to drive down emissions. The open source Climate Action Training will be launched in Q2/2024 but registering an interest in the training is already possible.

“It will be an effective and simple to use training tool to mainstream the knowledge about climate change not only on the buyers’ side but even more important on the supplier side where most of the emissions happen,” says Eike Feddersen, Senior Project Manager, GIZ.

Preparing suppliers for success

The online training is aimed at suppliers of hard goods based in Asia and will be offered in several relevant Asian languages. The free course is targeted at top management and technical mid-management at factories to raise awareness on their critical role in achieving a net zero cycling world.

Bicycle manufacturer Trek is quick to see the benefits of participating in the programme. “We have hundreds of suppliers, while we target some suppliers with hands on and in-depth programs to improve sustainability in their product and operations, we simply don’t have the ability to do that for every supplier,” explains Joel DeMeritt, Sustainability Lead at Trek Bicycle. “This program allows us to have a curriculum for those we don’t have direct outreach with. Of course, the curriculum is not complete, but we aim for it to be concise and actionable to prepare them for future success.”

“We want to improve the knowledge and environmental data quality coming from our suppliers”

‘The more the merrier’

“Sustainability is not a simple switch that can be turned on,” adds Andrew Goodman, CSR/Sustainability Manager of Scott Sports another partner in the project. “There is a ton of work that needs to be done in order to establish the proper foundations, this starts with internal education about the topics, gathering the necessary data in order to take informed decisions, completing the gaps in the data or improving the data quality and ensuring that there is a clear direction for the stakeholders to work with. All of these topics take enormous amounts of time and energy.

“This is a collaborative effort from across the bike industry, and we expect more brands to join in the future. Will that be to help establish the trainings and tools or will that be more in the form of assisting to spread them within their value chain? That is still something in discussion. Again the goal of the project is to collaborate in order to improve the knowledge and environmental data quality coming from our suppliers so as they say the more the merrier. The more brands that are collaborating, the better chance for this to be a success, in terms of data quality and knowledge but also in terms of financial viability.”