{"id":255079,"date":"2025-11-01T18:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T18:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/255079\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T18:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T18:33:11","slug":"lets-stop-glorifying-the-thinnest-and-lightest-and-start-championing-longevity-is-the-cycling-industry-doing-enough-on-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/255079\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLet\u2019s stop glorifying the thinnest and lightest, and start championing longevity\u201d: Is the cycling industry doing enough on climate action?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the cycling industry doing enough to promote sustainability and prioritise climate action? Most industry representatives believe so, but consumers aren\u2019t so sure, a new report assessing climate action progress within cycling has found.<\/p>\n

According to the report, published this week by the not-for-profit Shift Cycling Culture group, 62 per cent of industry representatives who took part in the organisation\u2019s survey said that they were either positive or very positive about their sustainability practices. In contrast, only 23 per cent of consumers said the same about the cycling industry.<\/p>\n

The Climate Action Pulse Check 2025 <\/a>is the second edition of Shift Cycling Culture\u2019s annual global survey, which tracks how the cycling industry is progressing on its climate commitments and strategies and how these efforts are perceived by cyclists and customers at home.<\/p>\n

Shift Cycling Culture says their survey gives companies the chance to learn from their peers and identify \u201copportunities for collective action\u201d, while providing a way for cyclists to share with the industry the priorities that matter most to them.<\/p>\n

This year, 111 industry representatives from 106 organisations, across 21 countries, participated in the survey, alongside 206 cyclists from 17 nations, with every company who took part receiving a personalised \u201cbenchmark report\u201d to assess how their progress compares to other brands.<\/p>\n

The 2025 survey was also, for the first time, available in both English and Mandarin, enabling the group to engage with more participants from cycling\u2019s all-important Asian market, accounting for a third of all respondents.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Cycling and sustainability: What the bike industry is doing, and what you can do to further reduce your carbon footprint as a cyclist<\/a><\/p>\n

Shift Cycling Culture says its \u2018Pulse Check\u2019, by highlighting several case studies from across the industry, including Frog Bikes, demonstrates how climate action is currently driving innovation in the cycling industry and is being integrated into day-to-day operations and enabling collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s too early to define long-term trends, the report highlights some key shifts and interesting insights into some contrasts between industry action and consumer expectations,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n

According to the report\u2019s key findings, 75 per cent of the industry representatives surveyed say their company is taking a \u201cstrategic approach to climate action\u201d, while 85 per cent report that reducing climate impacts is part of their product design and development.<\/p>\n

Over a third of companies have conducted at least one Life Cycle Assessment, which the group says \u201creflects a shift from isolated initiatives to integrating sustainability into core business practices\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"20222022 Specialized FACT carbon factory (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

Cycling companies, the report found, are increasingly putting climate strategies in place, disclosing emissions data, and embedding climate considerations into product design and employee training. Meanwhile, a growing number of companies now rank climate action as a high or medium priority, \u201creflecting broader recognition of its importance\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the industry expects climate action over the next five to ten years to be driven less by innovative breakthroughs and more by scaling proven solutions, such as engaging the supply chain, circular design, recycled materials, supply chain decarbonisation, and regulatory accountability.<\/p>\n

Industry representatives also report that cutting emissions, regulatory compliance, and new product innovation have proved the top three benefits of their climate efforts, while the main challenges to advancing climate action are project costs, budget constraints, and limited awareness and knowledge within organisations.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0How green is your carbon bike? And why your next one could be made from recycled carbon fibre<\/a><\/p>\n

And while more and more brands are beginning to prioritise sustainability, the report also found that, at the same time, fewer companies consider climate action their \u201ctop priority\u201d (only 20 per cent, according to the survey), with leadership-level support even slightly declining over the past year.<\/p>\n

That perhaps suggests why there is such a chasm between the optimism of the industry and that of their consumers when it comes to climate action, with the report noting that cyclists believe that the industry\u2019s leadership lacks transparency, and fails to engage in responsible marketing and collective actions.<\/p>\n

\"ModaModa carbon fibre road frame (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

12 per cent of the cycling consumers surveyed also believe that climate action is \u201cnot important\u201d to cycling brands, while 16 per cent think the issue is \u201cvery important\u201d to those in the industry.<\/p>\n

70 per cent of consumers report that they have switched brands due to sustainability concerns. These consumers called for longer-lasting, repairable, and compatible products, standardised parts, and circular design to reduce waste.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Hunt introduces recycled carbon fibre to its wheel range: would you pay just a little more to help the planet?<\/a><\/p>\n

As part of a selection of responses highlighted in the report, consumers also called for greater transparency and communication by brands, for professional cyclists and the UCI to use their platform to promote sustainability, and for brands to \u201ctake responsibility for what happens to a product at the end of its life\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreate more durable products,\u201d one consumer said. \u201cLet\u2019s stop glorifying the thinnest and lightest, and start championing the longevity of a product.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the product itself cannot be totally ‘0’ impact, focus on longevity,\u201d said another. \u201cThat also means stopping mindless one year product cycles, creating new \u2018standards\u2019 constantly, and actually making products repairable. As well as making these spare parts available and affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus in the bike industry seems to remain focused on selling new bikes, how about offering customers an upgrade package for parts at a later stage?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, despite the differences in general outlook between consumers and the industry, the report noted that both groups recognise that technology and policy alone will not be enough to combat climate change.<\/p>\n

Instead, promoting cultural and behavioural change across the cycling world, with a focus on collaboration, is viewed as equally important in the struggle to \u201ccatalyse climate action\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is the cycling industry doing enough to promote sustainability and prioritise climate action? Most industry representatives believe so,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-255079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}