Who is Responsible?

I question what I do everyday. I know that flying to so many places and making my life as an ambassador of brands, basically pushing people to buy the products I represent, is not at all environmentally friendly. I haven’t had carte blanche to pick and choose the companies I have been supported by. I haven’t been able to say, I’ll race using your products if they are sustainable, responsible, made with as little impact on the environment and the people that live in it. I’d like to have that power. I’d like to demand a responsibility from the companies I represent as well as a responsibility from myself. But honestly where would I be right now if I had demanded that?

I don’t know if I would be where I am today. Which is still working in the bike industry and still believing I can take my love of biking and espouse it on others. I still believe that bikes can save the world. But I don’t believe bikes can save the world the way our bike loving industry is doing it.

We don’t demand responsible manufacturing. We demand cheap, or rather lower margin, manufacturing. We don’t demand the environment comes first. We demand our wallets and bank accounts come first. Yet so many of us demand getting the newest shiniest bike things out there. And our industry lives off that. Our industry feeds into that. But what if we all just started to demand responsible manufacturing? What would happen? Would the cost of our bike parts go up? Would we only be able to afford new things once in a while? Would our favorite bike companies have to reduce their budgets for marketing, for branding, for editorial schmoozing?

Maybe what would happen is our environment would be saved. Maybe we would be able to swim in the river at the end of our ride. Maybe the air we breathe during our ride would be cleaner and more pure. Maybe it wouldn’t cause us to develop asthma or lung cancer. Maybe if we demanded responsible manufacturing, we would all end up with a place to ride. And even more importantly, a place for our children to ride. And if that is the result of demanding responsible manufacturing, then don’t you think it’s time we all started demanding just a little bit more from our bike industry?