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Schwalbe UK has announced that it is now carbon neutral.
“At Schwalbe, we strive to be the most sustainable bicycle tire manufacturer in the world,” said a statement. “This is why Schwalbe UK began working with Plannet Zero in 2021 to help measure our operational carbon footprint.”
This was calculated to be 70.46tCO2e, said Schwalbe, and by purchasing 210tCO2e of verified carbon credits to rebalance the organisation’s operational greenhouse gas emissions for 2021/2022, the company has successfully achieved not only carbon neutrality for its Scope 1, 2 and operational Scope 3 emissions in accordance with PAS 2060, but also a carbon positive certification.
Schwalbe has invested in carbon credit projects which together ensure that 28,752 hectares of forest is maintained as protected habitat for high conservation value species – a small first step on the way to achieving the company’s sustainability goals.
In addition to the Plannet Zero initiative, the company has also invested a total of £136,000 in renewable energy solar panels in recent years. Along with the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure to help cut the emissions from its vehicle fleet, of which nearly 50% is now fully electric, Schwalbe says this investment makes a significant contribution to its overall sustainability strategy.
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Schwalbe recently announced that it had achieved sales of €273 million in the 2021 financial year, a growth of around 20% for the family business compared to the previous year and a new record turnover.
“The 2021 financial year went extremely well for us,” said Frank Bohle, managing director of Ralf Bohle GmbH. “Despite the difficult environment caused by the pandemic, we have grown very strongly – which makes us proud.”
Schwalbe’s turnover has almost doubled in the past ten years; in 2011 it was at €140 million. One of the factors for the significant increase in 2021 was, in addition to the generally high demand for bicycles and bicycle parts, the e-bike boom.
