The rise of CSR reporting in the bicycle industry

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports are becoming a more regular occurrence from companies operating in the bicycle industry. The annual publications detail a company's sustainability efforts to its internal and external stakeholders.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly integrated into business practices in the bicycle industry. Companies are now facing growing (regulatory) pressure to demonstrate their commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, but not all companies have produced a complete CSR report yet – why is that?

“The cycling industry in general has started quite late with CSR reporting,” explains Sandra Brandt, Executive Director of Shift Cycling Culture, a not-for-profit movement supporting the bicycle industry in its sustainability initiatives. “The ones that now already have reports are also the ones that have something to tell. Ultimately, a CSR report is a company’s own story. It’s a big step from having just a page on a website to actually producing your own CSR report. To be able to take that step, you need to actually know about your impact and have reached a certain level of understanding on sustainability.”

“To publish a CSR report, a company needs to involve many departments internally. Once a company has been through the process once, then a blueprint is created. From there, the company needs to still showcase the progress on an annual basis. The first hurdle to take, is to collect all the data that is needed to understand your impacts and to set reduction targets. It's definitely a different level of commitment and investment that companies have to take. CSR reports are not just about setting a target for 2050, but also developing a path and actions of how to get there,” confirms Brandt.

Bike Europe has started compiling published CSR reports from within the bicycle industry. Some companies are several years into the process and others are just starting. Below is a small selection of measures highlighted in CSR reports published this year.

CSR report is not a ‘static concept’ for Schwalbe

Tyre manufacturer Schwalbe published its first CSR report in 2022 which was met with very good feedback according to Frank Bohle, CEO of Ralf Bohle GmbH, the company behind Schwalbe. “The report allowed us to officially define our CSR strategy and communicate it in a manner that’s transparent. We’ve had plenty of good resonance from customers, too, as they now have a better insight into our extensive range of activities. Particularly our CSR targets and climate goals and our commitment to recycling have met with a very positive response.”

In 2023 Schwalbe published its 2^nd CSR report. An important milestone in the reporting year was the official launch of the Schwalbe Recycling System in Germany: instead of incinerating used bicycle tyres, Schwalbe is the only manufacturer worldwide to not only take these back through specialist retailers but also recycle them to make new Schwalbe products in an important move towards the circular economy. “For us, CSR is not a static concept but a continuous process of improvement. We regularly vet our performance, set ourselves new goals and develop innovative approaches to further strengthen our company’s social and ecological responsibility.”

Trek carries out Life Cycle Assessment on popular Marlin model

In 2020, US brand Trek conducted a full-scale emissions audit, which gave it the opportunity to step back and look at its baseline impact. “Our recent emissions audit gave us a detailed picture of that cost — all the way down to the parts on a bike model. Manufacturing a Marlin, which is our most popular model, comes at a cost of 116kg CO₂e. Understanding this number, along with the specifics of the carbon-costliest parts of the bike, gives us a baseline for a reduction target and a clear view of where we can target improvements to our manufacturing and supply chain processes on this particular model to make the biggest strides,” the company stated in its 2022 sustainability report.

“To meet our overall reduction goals, for example, we’ll need to reduce the emissions of Marlin to around 81kg CO₂e by 2033.This 30% reduction will not happen proportionally. We know the impact of some parts will be reduced by more than 30%, and the impact of others will be reduced by less. To meet our goals, we’ll need a cumulative reduction, and this will take the continued investigation of all parts on Trek bikes, their material makeup, and their manufacturing processes.”

Riese & Müller decouples emissions from growth

In 2023 Riese & Müller, the German e-bike manufacturer who set itself the goal of being the most sustainable company in the sector by 2025, published its third CSR report. “Practising sustainability means constantly being in motion,” explains CEO Sandra Wolff. “It requires resilience, because we are not dealing with a linear process, but learning as we go with any number of twists and turns. 2025 is “only” a number, a beacon, and we will do everything possible to act responsibly until then and beyond.”

In the reporting period the company succeeded in reducing its net emissions from 7,746.82 tonnes of CO₂e in the previous year by just under 10% to 6,986.08 tonnes of CO₂e. At the same time, the company grew considerably, producing over 124,000 bikes compared to 106,000 bikes in the previous reporting period. “We were thus able to decouple emissions from growth,” the CSR report states. “As a result of our growth, emissions produced from our vehicle fleet, fuel and the waste we produce have increased as expected. However, at the same time, we managed to reduce overall logistics emissions, due to significantly fewer air freight shipments and shorter supply chains through a higher proportion of European suppliers. However, the calculated CO₂ emissions per bike thus did not reach the pre-pandemic level of 47.36 kg CO₂e (2019/2020 business year), but amounted to 55.96 kg CO₂e – a decrease of 23% compared to the previous year.”

Reducing production waste a focus for Herrmans Bike Components

In its third CSR report published this year, Finnish component manufacturer Herrmans Bike components highlights that one of its ongoing projects is to decrease the amount of waste that occurs in production. “By increasing the amount of material we recycle inhouse, we can reduce waste step by step. Regrinding of materials means that any scrap material that occurs during the production process is collected, reground, and fed directly back into the machine. Regrinding and re-granulation of different materials was started already back in 2008, and with the current ongoing projects the amount of waste will decrease even further. We have performed production tests with several of our main raw materials and tested them for different products in our production range. The results have been positive, and several new grinders will be implemented in production during 2023. This can lead to savings in carbon emissions of up to 450 t CO₂ equivalents per year.”

Herrmans’ raw material research team consists of people from different departments of the company: R&D, Purchase, Operational Excellence & Sustainability. The team is continuously working on finding suitable materials that could replace current fossil-based materials. “We have replaced virgin ABS with recycled ABS in chosen products, thus being able to reduce carbon footprint with 90% for products made of ABS. We have also tested and approved recycled POM and are testing other recycled raw materials continuously. The share of recycled material in production is steadily increasing.”

Vittoria transparent about emissions increases

Italian tyre manufacturer, Vittoria has published its second ESG report covering the fiscal year 2022. Here the company highlight’s the challenges of CHG emissions reduction. “In terms of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, the company defined the priorities as cutting Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by at least 55% by 2030 against a baseline of 2015, and reach net-zero carbon emissions, including Scope 3, by 2050. In 2022 we recorded an increase of about 11% in total GHG emissions compared to the previous year, which is a direct consequence of increased energy consumption. Specifically, Scope 1 emissions increased by 13% because of the increase in the consumption of natural gas, diesel and gasoline for vehicles, while Scope 2 emissions increased by about 9% due to increased electricity usage.”

“In 2022, direct Scope 1 emissions account for 57% of total GHG, while market-based Scope 2 emissions account for about 43%. As for energy consumption, our production in Thailand at Vittoria Tyres Thailand (VTT) contributes 98% of total GHG emissions at Group level, followed by our parent company Vittoria S.p.A. in Italy which contributes to around 1.2%. We are now defining an emission reduction strategy to be approved by the end of 2023. Key actions to be undertaken by 2030 are the electrification of our production process and a complete switch to renewable energy.”

SRAM highlights challenges of global supply chain

US component manufacturer, SRAM, has been measuring at least a portion of its carbon footprint since 2019, concluding that the global supply chain drives the vast majority of its carbon footprint, responsible for 91% of the company’s total emissions output. “It takes a complex mix of energy sources to power a global bike component maker. We work closely with our factories to help them use resources efficiently at the source while taking advantage of renewable energy when and where we can. As we consider a long-term strategy for reducing our carbon footprint, we’re finding a speedier transition to renewable energy across the company will be key to our success,” the company stated in its responsibility report published in October 2023.

“Currently, six of our 19 company locations satisfy 100% of their energy needs with renewables, whether through direct purchase, renewable energy credits (RECs), or another method. Two of our locations, Vancouver, Canada and Chambery, France, source exclusively hydroelectric and nuclear power, meaning their energy usage creates almost zero carbon emissions. We are also exploring how to implement renewables at eight additional locations.” The company identifies Taiwan as delivering the biggest challenge in terms of renewable energy. “With so many factories in a small island nation, demand for energy (especially renewables) is high, available capacity is small and development opportunities are limited.”

Climate Action Pulse Check

In 2021, Shift Cycling Culture launched the ‘Climate Commitment’ which parties active in the bicycle industry were encouraged to sign. Signatories committed to disclosing their carbon impacts by measuring Scope 1 and 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, in accordance with the GHG Protocol, by no later than 2023 and continue to do so on an annual basis. “The Climate Commitment signatories are not obliged to send their CSR report to us,” confirms Sandra Brandt, Executive Director of Shift Cycling Culture. “Our aim is not to ‘police’ the progress of the signatories, however we will ask all signatories in Q1 2024 to report on their commitment through an online survey. This assessment will be part of an annual Climate Action Pulse Check we plan to do, not just for signatories of the commitment, but for the whole industry, to bring transparency on the progress and to help us identify where collective action is needed to bring industry-wide progress.”