Cycling’s place in sustainable transport

“Why do you think you are entitled to say something about investments in infrastructure, as cycling mobility doesn’t bring in any money [like tax, ed.]?” Bob Margevicius, vice president of WBIA, reports being told by the other participants of the UN discussion rounds.

Monetise cycling

“They are right that we don’t bring in any direct capital, so we need to monetise the added value of cycling, like sustainable transport, health and decongestion,” said Margevicius in Taipei. While the automotive, airline and public transport industries can put scientific studies of their global impact on the table, the bicycle industry is only just starting.

Next to Margevicius in his role as vice president of WBIA was also Ann Chen, CEO of Velo and representing Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability (BAS), Charlie Liu, manager at Giant Group and representing BAS, Anke Schäffner, chief policy officer at ZIV, and Karan Aggarwal, director of Amar Wheels and member at AICMA. These industry heavyweights joined the panel discussions after the event was opened by WBIA President Bayram Akgül and Robert Wu, Chairman of TBA.

Earn respect of the global transportation community

The UN Decade of Sustainable Transport was kicked off last December in Geneva, Switzerland, as “a milestone moment designed to transform how people move, how goods flow and how societies connect.” Bob Margevicius openly asked during the WBIA meeting, “Why does it matter for cycling, and what changes do we need to identify as an industry?”

“If we are serious about sustainable transport, it's our moment now. The focus of WBIA is six deliverables for the industry to the UN,” Margevicius said. “Our first initiative is to make cycling a transport policy, not just a sport. We also aim for greater, more substantial infrastructure funding to increase transport use and make cycling part of climate change policy. We are working on global safety standards that are all aligned within the industry, as well as structural development funding for cycling. Finally, it is essential to earn and gain the respect of the global transportation community. Therefore, we need accurate data and measurement tools to provide to organisations that demonstrate how cycling is sustainable and an indisputable part of sustainable transportation,” explained Margevicius.

Implementation of digital product passport

The industry is taking its first steps to fulfil the requirements explained by Margevicius. The WBIA event at Taipei Cycle Show elaborated on the steps taken in Europe, India and Taiwan by its respective representatives.

“We have seen a backlash in transport and energy policy in Europe,” said Anke Schäffner “The last few months have been challenging in terms of regulation and sustainability. We have seen revisions in the sustainability reporting regulations and in the Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The recent implementation of the digital product passport has two sides. You can say it brings a lot of bureaucracy, but I would advise the companies within our industry to see the opportunities of the regulation. Once all the data is put together, it provides greater transparency into your supply chain. It shows you the source of the raw materials and where your products come from. This information makes companies more flexible and creates a more resilient supply chain.”

Sustainability in Taiwan industry

The industry is taking practical steps to make production more sustainable. Some of these examples are indeed starting to pay off. “We should benefit from the fact that Taiwan is such a small island and everyone is very close to each other,” said Velo CEO Ann Chen. “For example, we agreed to take their carbon scrap from wheel production and use it for the carbon-injected part of our saddles. Their waste is valuable to us, and in the future, we want to substitute almost 60% of all the material used with recycled material. The distance between the Velo factory and SRAM is only 10 km, so it was easy to start our cooperation.”

The cooperation between Velo and SRAM is the outcome of their BAS partnership. This Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability, founded in 2023 in Taiwan, is now a standing organisation, explained Charlie Liu of Giant Group. “We work closely together with a board and seven subgroups covering topics like methodologies, human rights, due diligence and an audit plan with the assistance of a local consultant. We now have the chance to develop the instruments we use into management tools for all of our members.”

“As soon as we talk about sustainability, immediately the point of cost comes in — the costs of recyclability are higher, the ‘green’ inputs are more expensive,” Karan Aggarwal said, on India’s manufacturing perspective. “Scope 1 and scope 2 are still manageable, but scope 3 becomes extremely complex, especially when a single component in the supply chain is highly fragmented. The only solution is sanitised frameworks across regions. There has to be local adaptation of international best practices. We also need to reduce the complexity, so make it more understandable for smaller organisations as well, where you don't have expert teams on ESG.”

The global production map

“Reshoring was really a big thing during the pandemic,” said Anke Schäffner. This enthusiasm calmed down a bit within the industry. Some investments have been made and new factories have been opened in Europe, but the aim for a 100% reshoring fell a bit. Nearshoring seems to make more sense. More companies have shifted their strategy to production where their markets are. However, the European Commission is setting up a strategy called Made in Europe, or the Industry Accelerator Act, in order to bring jobs back to Europe.”

“I think this is a nice idea, but Europe lacks skilled workers and the costs of energy are very high compared with other parts of the world. Optimisation can be a way to tackle these issues,” said Schäffner.

Geopolitical issue from US perspective

Bob Margevicius disagreed on the issue of production, likely because he took into account the latest developments regarding the United States administration's tariff policy. “From the US perspective, the global production map for bikes and e-bikes is unlikely to consolidate into one dominant country. What I do see instead is that it will evolve into a distributed, multi-regional manufacturing ecosystem that today will be driven by tariffs, geopolitical issues, resilience and logistics.”

The WBIA meeting concluded with a call from Margevicius to improve industry efficiency. “Bicycles or e-bikes are not designed for manufacturability. It requires a lot of manual work to build one. We have 198 individual components that make up just one bike. It is necessary to simplify that. The industry has to become more efficient, more productive, and simpler so we can examine this global supply chain and how we manage it.”