Sustainability at Ride Bikes
Our Sustainability Mission
We are a small independent business in a big sea of multi-national companies and larger corporations. We find ourselves in an economy that is struggling, a market that is saturated with high stock and low demand. We can’t complete with the sale war and we can’t compete with the online battles for clicks. So we have decided to focus on what is really important to us and look at what we can do, rather than what we can’t.
What we can do is make changes to the way we as a business work with the goal to become more sustainable and carbon neutral. We can educate and hope to inspire not only our staff, but our customers and the wider cycling industry as a whole to make the changes save our planet and our kids future.
What we are doing already?
- We sell bikes!
- Our workshop is built on the premise of repair, renew and maintain rather than replace
- We recycle all inner tubes
- We recycle all tyres – with zero waste
- We recycle all metal
- We recycle all plastic
- We recycle all cardboard
- Waste oil/chemicals collected responsibly
- Stock some items of clothing with a sustainable focus
- Stock some items of accessories that are environmentally friendly
- Reuse packaging for shipping/postal orders
What you can do?
- Recycle your inner tubes with us for free
- Recycle your tyres with us (there is a fee for this of £1.50 per tyre)
- Purchase our more sustainable products
- Use the workshop to renew components rather than replace
- Join us on one of our events
- Switch to eco lubes and cleaners (watch this space)
What we are going to do in 2024
- We have drawn up a monthly focus plan to focus on the environmental impact of specific areas of our business
- Accept more responsibility for our waste and where it actually goes, for example, find out what actually happens to our recycled waste – is it really recycled? How far? Find out what actually happens to our waste oil? Are there any better alternatives?
- Speak to local specialists for advice
- Measure our environmental impact as far as we can
- Educate ourselves and replace as many of our products and systems within the workshop to be more sustainable
- Reduce our energy usage
- Learn as we go and collaborate with other interested groups to find out what else we can do
Our MIssion is:-
- Be as carbon neutral as we can be (we can’t say 100% because we don’t know what it involves yet and whether we can achieve it, we won’t make promises we can’t keep)
- To educate ourselves and our customers to sustainable alternative products in the cycle industry
- To inspire the cycling industry to join us
- To inspire our customers to join us
- To do what we can, as far as we can, to help the planet
We may be small, but we hope to have a big impact!