When it comes to bicycle frames and their environmental impact, Trek’s report back in 2020 is likely what first comes to mind. But it’s not the only report out there.
Reynolds, a British company is known for its steel and titanium bicycle tubing, published its environmental impact study in August this year, which looked at the company’s manufacturing impacts and overall carbon footprint.
The company, which supplies to small-scale manufacturers, says the study is a result of a thorough review of its manufacturing operation, and was driven by desire to better understand its environmental footprint and help framebuilders and customers do the same.
‘I think being part of cycling is you in any case tend to be more environmentally aware, says Martin Shepherd, general manager at Reynolds.
‘I think you can’t just sit there and say, “We’re bicycles, we’re brilliant”. We’re not as bad as a Range Rover or something but there is a recognition that says even within our world that we can do things better. We can reduce our overall carbon footprint.
Material emissions: Steel vs. titanium vs. stainless steel
The report reveals that ferrous (i.e. standard) steel frames produce the lowest carbon emissions during manufacture, followed by titanium and then stainless steel.
Making one ferrous steel tube emits 2.15kg of carbon compared to a 6.74kg per titanium tube and 7.43kg per stainless steel tube.
Conventional steel is three times more environmentally friendly than a titanium frame, with a conventional ferrous steel diamond frame emitting 17.5kg of carbon while titanium comes in much higher at 53.92kg and stainless steel even more at 59.44kg.
‘What surprised me is that all of our steel comes from recycled metal,’ says Shepherd. ‘We do not use virgin materials so we are not responsible for anyone digging a hole in the ground. That was really good to discover.’
The materials’ carbon footprints also correspond to what sells the most.
‘Ferrous steel is by far our biggest seller,’ says Shepherd. ‘Based on this year’s figures titanium is the second biggest, and then stainless steel. We’ve seen titanium starting to grow and grow in popularity amongst riders.’
Air freight and air travel: Transport emissions
It is not just the materials themselves which have an environmental impact but also the logistics around them.
For Reynolds, the study revealed that in 2021 air freight produced nearly as much carbon emissions as gas and electricity combined. The figures for the report were taking during the Covid-19 pandemic which means that it focuses on a time of particular turbulence and demand.
‘This was the biggest one in terms of something that we can change,’ says Shepherd.
‘We used quite a lot of air freight to get raw material over, particularly because it was also a boom time so we were needing material quite quickly. Because we needed something in two weeks’ time, the only way to get here reliably in that time is by plane.’
The inbound logistics for stainless steel are considerably more than for ferrous steel or titanium.
According to Reynolds, this is because ferrous steel comes from Germany via lorry, boat and train, but during the pandemic stainless steel mostly came by air.
‘Stainless steel has the highest contribution in terms of the inbound logistics, because we don’t make a lot of stainless steel and we had been bringing it in mostly by air,’ adds Shepherd.
‘But that’s something we’ve changed this year. We’ve not air freighted any raw material so far this year and we are doing a lot of work in terms of improving our planning to make sure that we use sea freight instead.’
It wasn’t just air freight which threw up some surprises, but air travel too with the overseas travel representing the majority of the company’s non-production carbon emissions.
Shepherds says the company is now being much more conscious of how many people it sends to trade shows abroad and is looking to significantly cut back on this carbon figure.
But how reliable is the data?
The Reynolds’ report has not been externally audited and Reynolds admits that some of the numbers are quite vague because of the lack of information out there, so there is a significant margin of error.
‘The numbers are quite vague and quite woolly so we know we’d get pulled up on it if we had it externally audited, but there isn’t any better information out there,’ explains Shepherd.
For instance, Reynolds worked with Warwick University to help gather the figures but found that there weren’t numbers for things like heat treating bicycle tubes, because the information simply doesn’t exist.
Sourcing titanium from China also meant it was difficult to get reliable data.
‘Because we get our titanium tubes from China, and in China they’re just not interested in measuring emissions, it meant that in the report all our titanium stuff is virgin materials,’ says Shepherd. ‘We can’t get the data on what proportion is recycled so we had to use all virgin numbers.
‘Would I like to get it externally audited? Yes, but at the moment, I know that the figures have got a margin of error on them that’s significant.
‘So you might then say, well, why did you bother to publish it? It’s actually just to get something out there that shows quite clearly the orders of magnitude between the different technologies that we have.’
Localising production
While the report highlights the negative environmental impacts of air travel and air freight within the Reynolds’ supply chain, the company also says that it’s not the only one looking at reducing its supply chain, as attitudes are changing elsewhere too.
Back in the day, building bikes was a more local affair but in the age of globalisation much of the manufacturing for European brands has been outsourced to countries including China and Taiwan, which has increased environmental footprints. However according to Shepherd, there is a desire to bring production closer to home.
‘We’re seeing a lot of people starting to talk about on-shoring, or about more localised production,’ says Shepherd.
‘Especially from an emissions point of view, there’s a lot of movement to bring stuff back to being local, because some bikes do far more miles on a container boat than they ever do on the road.
‘When we talk to some of the more boutique brands that we deal with in the UK, they want to manufacture locally and reduce the length of their supply chain. They’re starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable about getting stuff from Asia and, equally, I think they’re thinking that local is better.
‘And it’s a conversation that has been coming up more and more even over the last 18 months or so.’
Moving forward
For Shepherd the key to the report is about informing people and prompting other companies to do the same piece of work.
‘We’re not saying steel and titanium are brilliant, and aluminium is rubbish and carbon is horrible,’ he says.
‘We’re doing what we can do and we hope it prompts other companies to do the same piece of work and put more information out there, to the bicycle buying public to help them inform their decisions.’
He also says that Reynolds is seeing a big growth in cargo bike requests which is in itself perhaps a reflection of people wanting to move things around in urban areas in a more environmentally friendly way.
‘We’re seeing that cargo bikes are coming back in and especially in urban environments they are really starting to get some traction,’ says Shepherd.
‘I think cycling is moving away from just the what you might call sports riders, or enthusiast riders, into people who want to get around in a low-carbon way.
‘From our perspective, it’s good to see at the grassroots level people are trying new stuff and creating these brilliant bikes. And including Reynolds in that process.’
Read Reynolds’ environmental impact study and Trek’s 2021 sustainability report
All image credits Reynolds