{"id":140586,"date":"2025-11-18T04:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T04:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/140586\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T04:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T04:08:12","slug":"its-not-about-reinventing-the-wheel-how-cycling-can-help-fight-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/140586\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s not about reinventing the wheel’ – how cycling can help fight climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the sceptics, our climate is continuing to change<\/a>. This year, we quietly reached our first climate tipping point, as warm water coral reefs passed into long term decline. Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C, other tipping points could be fast reached, including the collapse of major ocean currents and the loss of ice sheets.<\/p>\n

Climate change isn\u2019t just affecting our natural world, it\u2019s impacting our mental health, too. Levels of climate anxiety among 16-25 year olds is prevalent \u2013 and growing, with over 50% of young people from ten different countries \u201cextremely worried\u201d about climate change. 45% said these feelings \u201cnegatively affected their daily life and functioning.\u201d Climate change is impacting our mental and physical health, our natural environment and the trails we love to ride.<\/p>\n

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But what is cycling\u2019s role in the climate crisis<\/a>? Shift Cycling Culture, a Netherlands-based not-for-profit \u201cmovement\u201d, released a report last month<\/a> outlining the industry\u2019s commitment to sustainability.<\/p>\n

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It surveyed 111 industry representatives from 106 organisations across 21 countries, as well as 206 cyclists from across the world. The data they collected for the survey’s second year shows a dedication to sustainability; at least, on paper.<\/p>\n

According to the report, 95% of industry reps see climate as a priority, but those implementing change at the highest levels have dipped since last year. This comes as demand for sustainable items increases; 70% of the cyclists interviewed have switched brands due to sustainability concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth sides, however, are aligned on the way forward,\u201d the report reads. And that path may be more straightforward than you might expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not about reinventing the wheel,\u201d Santra Brandt, Shift Cycling Culture\u2019s executive director told Cycling Weekly, \u201cThere are actually so many existing concepts that we can build on, like circularity, like taking responsibility for the end of life of the product, then feeding this back into the design and development process.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI believe one of the biggest opportunities there are for the next few years is to look into material choices. The industry is basically built on materials that are produced in very energy intensive manufacturing processes. If you think about materials like aluminium, steel and carbon<\/a>, some of these materials are difficult to repair, or can’t be recycled. That’s also true for our gear that we wear. And, due to the lack of industry wide standardisation and compatibility, bikes and components are made to become redundant far too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Replacing the materials core to the production process has been proven possible by Trek. Since October of this year, Trek has introduced a low-emission aluminium sourcing policy that features materials produced via renewable electricity. They set themselves the task of staying within 11kg CO\u2082e per kilo of aluminium, and most of the company\u2019s sources now comfortably fall below that benchmark. They are now beginning to investigate how to roll out low-emission sourcing across all their components, not just the frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all about collaboration as well,\u201d Brandt continued. \u201cIt’s about helping your suppliers to transition to renewable energy, because we do have these really energy intensive production processes. Luckily, we do see a growing appetite for collaboration – between competitors, but also with business partners along the whole value chain, so from suppliers to retailers, to consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our favourite questions in the report is: ‘if you could suggest one sustainability change for the cycling industry, what would it be?’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCreate more durable products,\u201d one cyclist answered, \u201cLet\u2019s stop glorifying the thinnest and lightest, and start championing the longevity of a product.\u201d Another would like to see sustainability policies enforced at the top of professional sport, \u201cand for professional athletes to step up, take responsibility and use their platforms. \u201d<\/p>\n

This is a topic Brandt and I turn to. \u201cCyclists also acknowledge that our sport needs a cultural shift<\/a>,\u201d she tells me, referencing an article written by Isabella Bertold. In it, the rider explains the shift needed from \u2018new bike day\u2019 culture to one that privileges the longevity of a bike, of the craftsmanship that a sturdy, speedy, trustworthy bike requires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers tell a story the cycling media rarely covers,\u201d Bertold writes. \u201cA WorldTour team can burn through more than 200 wheels in a season, often swapping out perfectly good ones for marginal gains. Even before it touches the road, a single carbon bike carries a footprint of around 100kg of CO\u2082e. Multiply that by thousands of frames, and the impact is impossible to ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n

We turn back to Brandt\u2019s key takeaways from the report, as she looks ahead to Shift Cycling Culture\u2019s mini-COP 30 industry meet-up on 2 December.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies have to take more responsibility for the products they make,\u201d she finishes, \u201cnot just because of the climate crisis, but because of the impact they have on the places that often build the very foundation of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the sceptics, our climate is continuing to change. This year, we quietly reached our first climate tipping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-140586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}