Sustainability

sustainability logo

As a small, privately held company, we are in complete control of our internal direction and decision making. And as committed bicycle riders and enthusiasts, we all share a sense of responsibility for stewardship of our planet Earth.

We formed our Sustainability Action Group (S.A.G.) to be focused and intentional about minimizing our impact on the environment. By continually auditing and evaluating our company, products, and supply chain, our working group can find incremental improvements to drive our ongoing, collective commitment to sustainability.

Company

We recognize that sustainability starts within our building. In 2021, Feedback Sports purchased a building in our home town of Golden, Colorado. With more control over our space, we launched initiatives to do better at every opportunity. 

  • We utilize energy efficient LED lighting and natural daylighting to reduce energy consumption.
  • Smart thermostats and passive solar heating help regulate the building temperature.
  • Employees are offered incentives to commute by bike or public transit, plus flexibility to work from home when practicable, to reduce carbon footprint.
  • Company time is dedicated for employee volunteerism, public lands stewardship, and trail building.
  • Employees sit on various sustainability committees with People For Bikes to continuously look for new ways to incorporate sustainability initiatives into our business.

Products

The Feedback Sports product range is constantly under scrutiny not just for functional and design improvements, but for sustainability as well. The SAG oversight includes evaluation and scoring of product content, product serviceability, packaging, and manufacturing processes.

 As a general rule, our efforts include:

  • Reducing industrial waste by maximizing polymer regrind content and cardboard waste back into products and packaging.
  • Creating packaging that is curbside recyclable and not contaminated with thin film plastics, foams, cellophane or staples.
  • Reducing overall packaging size to maximize shipping efficiency. 
  • Offering an extensive inventory of repair parts plus videos and documentation to support our user’s “right to repair” and extend product lifecycles.

Internally ranking our products for environmental impact has helped push our product development toward improving sustainability. The highest ranked products earn the Feedback Sustainability emblem, signaling heightened sensitivity to environmental impact. To merit the Feedback Sustainability emblem, products must meet the following criteria:

  • Minimum 80% post-consumer recycled cardboard or paperboard used in packaging
  • No polybags, tape or staples used in packaging
  • Maximum of only 1% plastic packaging by weight
  • The product itself must be composed of 80% recyclable materials.
  • Digital owner’s manual content linked via QR code; no paper manuals.
  • Product is 80% serviceable (earns an “8” or better serviceability score in our internal ranking)

Supply Chain

There’s no denying that most of our products are manufactured overseas and must be transported to market via ocean freight. However, we take steps to maximize efficiency and minimize carbon footprint during this process.

  • Containers are floor-loaded when possible (no container space consumed by pallets).
  • Eliminate single use plastics for as much inter-supply chain transit as possible.
  • Design individual product packaging to ship in its own container (SIOC) to eliminate reseller shipping waste.
  • Lowest possible volume product packaging means less wasted space and more products moved per shipping mile.
  • Transition product manufacturing closer to our consolidation point to reduce inter-supplier shipping resources.
  • Drop shipping containers factory-direct to customers rather than relying on central distribution to minimize overall transit miles.