Forget Branson, Is Kind Bicycles Green?

February 11, 2008

No. Kind Bicycles is not green, at least by our definition anyway. If we were, we would be pissed. It really means nothing anymore to proclaim you are green. Every company screwing in a compact florescent in their bathroom is all of a sudden talking about it in a press release.

Why are we talking green anyway?

When we started Kind, it was our intention to run a perfect green company so we could save the world and sleep at night. Having been in the bike biz for a long time before Kind was born, we knew this was a challenge. What we didn’t know is that the willingness to change to a more sustainable model industry wide, even in the current green frenzy, is still not on the radar.

We applaud the small steps companies are taking, but we think that all companies should be doing these things anyway – developing an office wide recycling program in 2008 should not be news.

The potential for a REAL green strategy in the bike industry is enormous. It is going to take a collaborative effort to fix the problem, but admitting you have a problem is the first step and the industry is not there yet. It will also take transparency.

As for Kind, we are taking steps on the production side to ensure we lead by example. We have stated the world does not need another bike company, especially one that does the same thing as everyone else. We have to be different and have to keep pushing the envelope both to survive as a company and to effect change.

So while we will not go out there and state we are green just for the sake of saying we are green, we hope our actions and our transparency will speak for themselves.

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