Shift Cycling Culture - How do you convince the industry to address sustainability?

Shift Cycling Culture

The cycling industry loves to talk about innovation. New materials, new geometries, marginal gains measured to the decimal place – it has never struggled to find things worth celebrating. What it has struggled with is sustainability, where the default, for most companies, has been silence.

Shift Cycling Culture is a nonprofit foundation trying to change that. Not through legislation or finger-wagging, but by bringing companies together to share problems and find solutions. It was founded in 2018 by Lian van Leeuwen, who came from sustainability work in the food industry, and Erik Bronsvoort, who had spent two years running a circular economy bike shop in the Netherlands.

Jane Dennyson joined soon after as the third co-founder, and in 2023, Sandra Brandt – previously working in sustainability in the apparel industry – came on board as executive director.

From left, Erik Bronsvoort, Lian van Leeuwen and Sandra Brandt.

I sat down with Van Leeuwen, Bronsvoort and Brandt for this episode of Overnight Success to talk about where Shift came from, what the cycling industry is and isn't doing about sustainability, and what it would take to actually change things.

__The written Q &A below is an edited, shorter version of the full interview, which you can listen to below. __

This post is for subscribers only

Become a member to get access to all content

Subscribe now