Corporate Social Responsibility

Protecting planet Empowering customers Forming partnerships

Find out how we are working to become ever more responsible. This work will not – and must not – ever stop because progress has an infinite horizon. We keep moving forward.

Protecting the planet

Protecting the living world has never been more urgent. Climate change and biodiversity loss are some of the biggest challenges we have ever faced as a species. There is no time to lose.

As a company focused on cycling and outdoor recreation, the natural world is central to our DNA. There is no us without it. Protecting it is as instinctual as protecting one’s own body. We simply must.

This is how we are stepping up to the challenge.

Reducing our carbon footprint

Avoiding the worst impacts of climate change requires urgent action. From all of us. By working together to reduce carbon emissions significantly we can keep global warming within 1.5°C. This is the goal of the Paris Agreement, adopted by 196 parties in 2015. This is our goal, too.

1 — Understanding our carbon footprint

To reduce our impacts, we must first understand them. Since 2020, we have measured our emissions based on the guidelines of the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.

The protocol provides a framework for measurement and includes three categories of emission sources that are increasingly challenging to measure.

Scope 1

covers emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by our company. For example, heating, the fuel of our company fleet and refrigerants for cooling.

Scope 2

covers emissions from the generation of purchased electricity consumed by the company.

Scope 3

is an optional category that includes all other indirect emissions. At Internetstores, we measure the emissions generated from packaging, distribution and product returns, business travel by air, plane, rail and rental car, commuting, teleworking, operational waste (from our largest facilities), printing products, office paper and end-of-life of packaging materials.

2 — Addressing the main areas of impact

Analysing our corporate carbon footprint allows us to identify our largest direct sources of emissions both within the company and indirect emissions along the upstream and downstream stages of our value chain. This is essential to identify the most important areas of action for reduction, define our reduction targets along the value chain and measure progress on our reduction over time.

3 — How we are doing

Every year we work to improve data quality, optimise data collection and improve accuracy. This has enabled us to measure logistics (shipping and returns) and electricity and heating consumption more accurately, as well as enlarge our Scope 3 effort by including external printing products in 2022. This has established a baseline that will help us set targets in alignment with the Paris Agreement.

4 — Initiatives to reduce our footprint

Understanding and reducing our impact is an ongoing process. It comes down to caring about the smallest details. Here are four areas of the business where we have made progress.

Facility management

We are gradually switching all our owned or operated facilities to electricity providers generating power from renewable energy sources.

Since 2022, our four main offices (Stuttgart, Berlin, Stockholm and Lyon), all our operations in Sweden and the new fahrrad.de service point in Freiburg, Germany, are powered by 100% renewable energy sources. Our warehouse in Untertürkheim, Germany, is equipped with a photovoltaic system.

Employee mobility

Our vision is to get more people on bikes every day, and that starts with our employees. We encourage bike commuting at our offices with bike park stations, workshops, and shower facilities. And our flexible working policy has allowed us to decrease employee commuting emissions. In 2021, 8.5% of our emissions came from employee commuting. In 2019, pre-COVID, it was 25%.

Our employees enjoy a discount in all our shops, encouraging them to buy bicycles, e-bikes, bike parts, helmets and other leisure and commuting items. In addition, bike leasing and rental options are available in some of our locations.

Business travel

Every business trip is purchased through a business travel platform which calculates the CO₂ emissions of all our train trips, rental cars, flights and hotels. Once calculated, the platform generates a fee based on the tonnes of CO₂ the trip emits. The fee is transferred to various environmental projects, such as reforestation, conservation, or renewable energy projects to offset the emissions.

In 2022, we implemented an incentive for electric and hybrid vehicles by offering improved leasing conditions for the company fleet.

Logistics and packaging

As an omnichannel business, the emissions generated by packaging, shipping and returns are some of the most significant contributors to our company’s carbon footprint. Reducing this source of emissions requires collaboration with our logistics partners and other stakeholders.

The first step is to improve our understanding. We do this by measuring and identifying the areas of greatest impact, so we learn exactly what’s required to reduce our CO₂ emissions. In 2022, in collaboration with our third-party logistics partners, we began improving the quality and accuracy of the calculations of our emissions coming from delivery and return.

The search for packaging materials with a lower environmental impact and ensuring damage-free delivery is an ongoing task. So is finding less carbon-intensive ways to work with our logistics partners, such as opting for fossil fuel-free vehicles.

Alongside reducing our emissions, we invest in certified climate protection projects that compensate for our emissions including those from shipping, returns and packaging.

Our climate commitment

Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement is an enormous challenge. We can only get there if we work together. That’s why we are joining forces with relevant outdoor and cycling industry peers. By aligning, we can achieve more.

Outdoor Retailer Climate Commitment

Together with four outdoor retailers, Internetstores founded the Outdoor Retailer Climate Commitment (ORCC). On a yearly basis, we have committed to:

Measure our carbon footprint (Scope 1, 2 and 3)
Set specific targets
Implement measures to reduce emissions
Create greater transparency

Cycling Industry Climate Commitment

Internetstores is one of the founding signatories of the Cycling Industry Climate Commitment in collaboration with Shift Cycling Culture. This commitment is an urgent call for the cycling industry to collectively do its part to help achieve the Paris Agreement goals. By working together, we can bring about transformational change to the industry. We’ve committed to:

Measure our carbon footprint (Scope 1 and 2
Set specific targets
Implement measures to reduce emissions
Create greater transparency

Empowering customers

Consumers have a crucial role to play in the transition to a sustainable economy. And we are seeing our customers want and expect change. They want to make informed purchase decisions that reflect their values. We are providing them with tools to make conscious shopping easier.

Promoting conscious shopping

Change starts with awareness and access to empowering information. Consumers can then make the right choices. For this reason, we have launched responsible shopping pages and a filter for our CAMPZ, Addnature, fahrrad.de, Bikester and Brügelmann online shops.

Customers can use our filter to find products with globally recognised sustainability certificates, such as Fair Trade Certified, bluesign PRODUCT and Global Recycled Standard (GRS), for example. Each certificate relates to a standard regarding environmental impacts, animal welfare and social concerns. The responsible shopping pages help our customers understand the certifications and standards and how to use the filter. We also provide our customers with information about the various sustainability certificates in the special features section on each product page.

Our care guides help our customers learn how to look after their equipment and different textiles and fabrics.

This is just the beginning. We’re working to give our customers more transparency, information, and choice in the future.

Sizing right to reduce returns

In 2019, we began using a bike size recommendation service that calculates the best bike size for our customers based on their individual measurements. This reduces the number of size-related returns.

Since then, we have tested several bike sizing and fitting solutions. Following the results, and feedback from bike experts we have strengthened our partnership with Smartfit. We will continue developing new features to help customers find the optimal fit, both for bikes and for footwear and clothing.

Fewer returns mean less packaging waste and fewer emissions.

Encouraging a circular economy with Biked

Launched in 2021 by Probikeshop, part of Internetstores Group, the Biked platform is the European second-hand marketplace for bicycles, bicycle parts and cycling equipment. It began in France, followed by Spain and is expanding across the continent. And, like the second-hand movement in general, Biked is booming.

Cyclists active in the special interest categories of road or mountain biking, which Biked focuses on, tend to own more than one bike or need to start with a second-hand bike to enter the sport. For them, Biked is the perfect platform.

Paired with a user-friendly app, Biked is enjoying rapid growth in second-hand sales. Rather than bicycles, bike parts and equipment gathering dust in cellars and garages, Biked allows users to help them find a new home. The expansion of this customer-to-customer platform will extend product life, promote a circular economy in the cycling scene and help reduce the use of new manufacturing resources.

Inspiring a responsible outdoor lifestyle

We want people to ride bikes and enjoy the outdoors. When we enjoy something, it’s natural to want to protect it. But we also encourage our customers and employees to enjoy the outdoors responsibly. We can make our adventures kinder on the planet.

One way we do this is by creating and sharing inspiring and educational content. For example, we made 10 Tips for a Responsible Adventure Lifestyle, a list of important and easy-to-implement actions we hope will inspire our community to live a responsible and conscious adventure lifestyle (available in English, German and French).

We will continue to inspire and educate. Even seemingly small things can make a big difference if all of us, cyclists and adventurers alike, commit to them!

Forming partnerships

We know we can make the greatest impact by working with others. The synergies not only mean a better result but also inspire us to continue improving. We’re a member of the European Outdoor Group and Shift Cycling Culture for this reason. They are group pacts for positive change. Stronger together.

European Outdoor Group

Vision: European Outdoor Group (EOG) is the voice of the European outdoor sector, and its vision is to do global, profitable business in a way that gives back more than the industry takes – from nature and people.

Founded in 2003 by 19 of the world’s largest outdoor companies, EOG has three essential priorities: conducting business in an ethical and sustainable manner, preserving the outdoors, and getting people active in nature.

EOG is pushing for an industry that is climate neutral, free from harmful chemicals, uses resources responsibly, discharges safe emissions and maintains ethical supply chains.

Since 2022, the Outdoor Retailer Climate Commitment (ORCC) has been integrated as an initiative within the European Outdoor Group.

Shift Cycling Culture

Vision: Shift aims to accelerate the shift to responsible production and use in the cycling world by telling inspiring stories, enabling collaboration, developing capability and supporting action on climate change.

In 2021, Shift launched the Cycling Industry Climate Commitment, a collaboration of a dedicated group of CEOs leading some of the largest companies in the cycling industry. The founding 14 signatories, including Internetstores, issued an urgent appeal to acknowledge the cycling industry’s responsibility in reaching the UN Paris Agreement targets on climate change and to do so collectively.

Since publishing that initial letter, dozens of brands, manufacturers and distributors, retailers and others working in the cycling industry have signed the commitment.

Corporate Social Responsibility Contact

E-Mail: sustainability@internetstores.com