Bike Week 2022: The “Netflix of Bikes” launches first ever sustainability report

Swapfiets, the world’s first ‘bicycle as a service’ company, has today, at the start of Bike Week 2022, released their ‘annual sustainability report’, reflecting on their eco-impact to date and unveiling plans to become a fully circular business by 2025.

The sustainability report is globally one of the first of its kind published within the cycling industry. It delves into the brand’s positive impact to date and examines the company’s environmental footprint, offering solutions to help the company continue to become more socially and environmentally conscious and eventually become 100 per cent climate neutral.

Key findings from the new report include the concrete proof that Swapfiets’ subscription model is more sustainable that owning a bike and also illustrates that over 800,000 kg CO2 has been saved thanks to the circular business model.

Findings from the report also show the Deluxe 7, (Swapfiets’ most popular bike model), is already 88 per cent circular compared with 36 per cent of the comparable shelf models built for sale. The bike also has a 35 per cent lower global warming potential per year (6.54kg CO2) than comparable shelf models built for sale (10.1 kg CO2).

Now with over 250,000 monthly subscribers in 65 cities, Swapfiets has quickly become one of the pioneering subscription brands across Europe, with stores across London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, and Milan to name a few.

2021 saw Swapfiets hit many milestones as a sustainably focussed business, including the launch of their newest E-bike (Power 1), a nomination for The Circular Award and most importantly the switch to green electricity at all physical stores across Europe.

Founder of Swapfiets and director of sustainability, Richard Burger said: “We started Swapfiets in 2014, the early days of the ‘from possession to use’ movement. At that time, the circular economy community was still in its infancy. Our main focus was to serve Swapfiets members with a smart bicycle membership and build our company around that.

“We took a different approach to the old-fashioned ‘take-make-waste’ model of producing, selling, and consuming products because that was the only way for members to experience the benefits of cycling.”