Call-out for climate-friendly business

What does an open letter have to do with a delicious ice cream flavour? At first glance nothing, and then at second glance quite a lot. The letter was a call-out by the Shift Cycling Culture Initiative to the entire bike industry. Riese & Müller helped to initiate and sign this request in 2021. The initiative demands that businesses operate with a climate-friendly and future-proof approach. In specific terms, this means companies determining their own CO2 emissions, publishing them and working in the long term to reduce them. This is also applicable to suppliers and partners.

Transparency in the supply chain

The cloud platform sustainabill is a building block on the road to become a sustainable company. “Suppliers can create a profile here and showcase their commitment to sustainability,” explains Sarah-Helena Sowa, Head of Sustainability at Riese & Müller. Selle Royal is one of these suppliers. Numerous Riese & Müller models are equipped with saddles made by the manufacturer based in the North Italian town of Pozzoleone. Selle Royal also signed the Shift Cycling Culture appeal and is part of the sustainabill project.

Objective: to lower CO2 emissions

“We have committed to reduce our CO2 emissions by 55% by the year 2030,” states Pietro Tomasella of Selle Royal. The company therefore predominantly produces in Europe, buys solar power and manufactures saddles that are made from 100% recycled plastic, like the “Lookin Evo”. Stracciatella technology is the next major step towards circular-based and responsible production.

Recycling technology that looks amazing

Waste generated in production of the saddles forms the basis of this recycling method. “The difficult aspect is that we have different materials, each of which has a very complex composition,” explains Tomasella. They include PU foam, plastics and Royalgel™. Selle Royal developers conducted research and experiments over a period of three years. The solution: the materials are collected, shredded and converted into a granulate, which is injected into the foam padding for new saddles.

The black grains in the white foam immediately reminded the team of Stracciatella ice cream – the popular, delicious ice cream flavour containing small chocolate chips, which originates from the Italian town of Bergamo. The Stracciatella project was therefore also officially launched there in November. Different saddle models will be gradually produced with the recycled foam.

“The new saddles produced with Stracciatella technology combine the excellent comfort and quality of a Selle Royal saddle with the endeavour to fit preferably sustainable components into our bikes. A perfect match,” concludes Ben Siegholt, Product Manager at Riese & Müller, who also attended the launch. Soon Riese & Müller bikes will therefore also be equipped with the Stracciatella saddle model.

Sustainably working with reliable partners

“We are on the way to becoming the most sustainable manufacturer in the e-bike sector,” explains Sarah- Helen Sowa. “We can achieve a lot alone. But we become truly effective when the entire industry also gets involved. And, of course, we are dependent on the support of suppliers. When we consider the carbon footprint of an e-bike, by far the largest proportion is due to the materials of the individual components and their origin. The more partners address this issue and get involved, the greater the sustainability that we can incorporate in bikes and e-bikes, and thus throughout our entire industry.”