Swapfiets Sustainability Report 2021

What a ride! Behind the scenes of our sustainability journey

Wow. 2021 has been quite the ride (and that is an understatement)! Yes, our team was living and working in pandemic times and doing everything within our power to serve our members. At the same time, we were working very hard on measuring and improving the sustainability and social impact of our company. During the – on many levels – challenging year 2021 we pushed the pedals even harder in our mission to lead the movement to more liveable cities. “We have a responsibility to use business as a force for good and give more to the world than we take. Ambitious as we are, we decided to set a big hairy audacious sustainability goal. Our dot on the horizon. We are determined to take bigger and bolder steps, achieve a 100% circular product line and become a climate neutral company by 2025." Says Richard Burger, one of the founders of Swapfiets and our Director of Sustainability.  

Environmental and social responsibility

At Swapfiets we do not sell bikes. We believe this planet has enough stuff. But it’s not enough to have a noble mission. In our very first sustainability report we measure the positive impact we have but more importantly to examine our footprint and to ask ourselves hard questions so we can continue to do better both socially and environmentally. By sharing insights into our sustainability processes, most important achievements, impact driven goals and – not to forget - our learnings, we want to inspire others and offer tools to accelerate to more sustainable decision making. Both in daily business and at home. Nobody said it was easy and we are not there yet, but we are proud to see we are paving the (bumpy) road to a more sustainable business slowly but surely. 

Our impact in #numbers

In this very first sustainability report we focus on the impact we made in 2021. Since we set ambitious targets and change does not happen overnight, we are dedicated to keep up the hard work. We are pushing to meet our goals and our collective mindset is positive and up for the challenge. Some numbers that we feel like sharing with you: 

• In 2021 we saved a whopping estimated amount of 800,000 kg CO2 because of our circular business model a.k.a. by our 250.000 members using a bike instead of owning one. That is as much as driving around the Earth 170 times, in a petrol car!  

• Our Deluxe 7 model is already 88% circular – we still have 12% to go for a full circular product line! 

• We reached 100% green electricity in our shops and offices 

• 60% of the total kilometres travelled by our employees is done by bike 

• We teamed up with the charity foundation Bicicletas Sin Fronteras for schoolchildren in Senegal and repaired and donated a first batch of Swapfiets bikes. 

• We made the first steps (18%) towards a 100% zero emission vehicle fleet for transporting our bikes. 

We’ll zoom in on how we aim to achieve a circular product line by keeping products and materials in the loop and how we use data to make continuous improvements. Swapfiets takes a different approach on the old-fashioned ‘take-make-waste’ model of producing, selling and consuming products to create an optimal hassle-free user experience for our members. Besides taking responsibility in the field of sustainability, we’ll also update you on our progress in terms of creating social impact.   

Together with all our members we’ll keep pushing the pedals even harder to reach our sustainability goals and to lead the movement to more liveable cities!