Our mission is to make bikes part of everyday life for more people and to promote personal, physical and mental wellbeing through a range of cycling activities. Whilst promoting active transport is positive for the environment, running our business is not carbon neutral and what we do at our workshop and out on the road has an impact on the North-East of England and beyond. We are trying to take on our environmental responsibilities. Please see some of the steps we are taking to try and minimise our footprint and do better for our climate and the future.
Utilities
Our Gas and Electric is supplied by Ecotricity. Their electrical supply is 100% from Renewables and their Gas is Carbon-Offset. Whilst Carbon offsetting is not ideal, it is an interim solution until they can increase their green gas supply from 1% up to 100%.
https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-energy/green-electricity
Waste Rubber
Our waste rubber is recycled by Velorim UK. Velorim have come up with a neat and efficient solution for recycling bicycle tyres. Previously it was not cost efficient to recycle them, but now the tyres can be broken down into their constituent parts and recycled into new materials. If you have ever bought a tyre or innertube from us, your old one will have been recycled through this scheme. At Bike4Health we open this scheme to customers who haven’t bought tyres or tubes from us for a levy of £1/tyre 50p/tube.
Fluids
Waste oil (degreaser, suspension fluid, mineral oil and DOT fluid from brakes) is collected and disposed safely and NOT washed down the drain. It is a time-consuming process to capture and dispose of this waste fluid but we think it is worth it. The amount of waste fluid we generate is too small to be deemed worthwhile for commercial recycling, so we dispose of ours in collaboration with Wrights Garage, Gosforth.
https://www.wrightsmotorsgosforth.co.uk
Metals
We recycle 100% of our metal waste. It is separated by material and recycled locally by the EMR Group in walker. https://uk.emrgroup.com
Cardboard Packaging
We try to re-use as much as possible for shipping items from Bike4Health, and excess goes to Newcastle record shop 586 Records to be reused as packaging for mail-orders there. Excess cardboard packaging is collected and recycled by our local authority (North Tyneside Council).
Transport
We will be using an e-Cargo bike to deliver our local Dr. Bike sessions from summer 2021. This will cut down on our van emissions as we won’t need to drive to sites to deliver and the bike will be charged with green electricity. Our latest van purchase (VW T6) was specified with the greenest available engine. We review our fleet annually and whilst unfortunately electric vans are unfeasible due to the budget restrictions of a self-funded CIC, we hope costs will lower when it comes to replacing our fleet within the next five years.
We’re trying our best to make genuine and effective changes to how we do business to protect our environment for future generations. We’d love your feedback and suggestions on how we can do better. If you have any useful ideas of feedback, email us at info@bike4health.org!