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Trek’s second-ever Sustainability Report does one thing exceedingly uncommon within the outside trade: It talks about what the corporate can’t do.
Nowadays, many outside firms appear to embrace each emissions-reducing pledge or environmental buzzword — with out a lot proof that they’re really serving to the planet. Trek’s report contrasts starkly with that established order, setting practical targets for enhancing its sustainability whereas criticizing a few of the trade’s most widespread methods.
On carbon offsets? Trek is throwing them out as a result of they “distort actuality” and “impair” the flexibility to enhance enterprise practices, the corporate mentioned in a press launch. On net-zero pledges? Many firms set these targets “with none plan to get there,” and “any net-zero declare must be met with skepticism,” the Trek report mentioned.
As an alternative of these approaches, Trek has joined an extended listing of outside firms getting into the resale market, from Arc’teryx to REI to Patagonia. It’s launching a brand new program for purchasing used bikes referred to as Pink Barn Refresh. Trek claims it’s the primary manufacturer-led bike trade-in and refurbishment program within the biking trade. (Spoiler alert: It received’t really develop into accessible till later this 12 months.)
“We occupy a planet suffering from damaging enterprise and manufacturing practices … and we’ve got failed to grasp the true and catastrophic affect of our existence,” Trek Bicycle president John Burke wrote within the report’s intro. “The results will have an effect on us all.”
Trek Bicycles: Pink Barn Refresh
With Pink Barn Refresh, Trek hopes extra customers will select to purchase used bicycles as a substitute of latest ones.
“Essentially the most environmentally pleasant bike is the one you already personal, intently adopted by one which was owned by another person,” the corporate mentioned in a press launch.
With the refurbishment program, Trek goals to increase the lifecycle of its merchandise, scale back consumption of latest supplies, and reduce on waste. Right here’s the way it works: Beginning later this 12 months, cyclists can commerce of their used Trek bicycles at choose Trek shops and taking part retailers. In return, the bike homeowners will obtain in-store credit score towards a brand new bike.
The beforehand owned bikes will endure an “exhaustive” 151-point refurbishment course of. Then, they’ll be resold through Trek’s official web site, trekbikes.com.
Particulars about the place to seek out areas for handing over your bike — or when and the place you should purchase them on-line — have been omitted of Trek’s announcement. The web site will probably develop into accessible later this fall, in response to a spokesperson.
“Pink Barn Refresh introduced us again to the crimson barn that began all of it as we embark on the journey of decreasing consumption and lengthening the life of those bikes, which is best for our folks and the planet,” Eric Bjorling, model director at Trek Bicycle, mentioned within the press launch.
Trek’s Emissions-Discount Plan
One factor shortly turns into clear from studying Trek’s report: The corporate’s leaders are attempting to do greater than recycle T-shirts.
For the second time, Trek tapped WAP Sustainability Consulting to evaluate each facet of its enterprise. The result’s a 43-page deep dive into the corporate’s operations. It paints a dizzyingly complicated image of the issue of making a sustainable enterprise mannequin.
Need to know the emissions behind each single a part of 4 totally different Trek bicycles? That’s right here. Are you interested in their constructing and infrastructure adjustments for lowered vitality use? That’s right here, too, together with loads of details in regards to the firm’s sustainability efforts up to now.
For instance, since chopping single-use plastics in 2020, the corporate has averted half 1,000,000 kilos of waste from its bike packaging. It’s additionally certainly one of many bike firms partnering with Call2Recycle for correct disposal of e-bike batteries and promoting attire (and bike tires) comprised of recycled supplies.
However for all its efforts, Trek is now firmly against carbon offsets and net-zero pledges. Why? As a result of, like so many different firms, the overwhelming majority of Trek’s emissions are “oblique” causes of its provide chain, the report mentioned. A whopping 96.2% of all its emissions come from uncooked supplies, transportation of these supplies, enterprise journey of staff, disposal of outdated merchandise, and different sources.
To fight these emissions, Trek plans to “construct with much less affect” and “create merchandise which might be used longer” — therefore the start of Pink Barn Refresh.
“You possibly can’t change what you’ll be able to’t see,” mentioned Bjorling. “This report transparently exhibits our emissions findings and evolving roadmap for the longer term, demonstrating actual, sustainable motion. We hope this evokes change inside and out of doors of the biking trade.”
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