gogeta and Brompton become Certified B Corps

Separately, both gogeta and Brompton have attained certified B Corporation status. The cycle to work and bicycle manufacturer (respectively) have joined the growing ranks of bicycle businesses that also includes Nuun, Swapfiets and Bike Club, among others.

Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet high standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

The gogeta team said: “For our partners we believe that every interaction with gogeta contributes to a broader mission of sustainability, ethical practices and social responsibility. This certification further elevates our status and is likely to assist growth across all of our partner networks.

“To all bicycle retailers who have partnered with us already, thank you for being part of the gogeta family. For those not yet partnered with us, we invite you to join on this exciting path. We look forward to continuing our journey towards a better, more sustainable future.”

Brompton CEO Will Butler-Adams OBE said: “Sustainability is not something to celebrate. It should be as natural as breathing – a given part of what and who we are as a business.”

“We have now made over a million Bromptons, and feel it is time to raise our voice, to stand up and shine a light on what’s going on around the world. Since the industrial revolution too many businesses have been hurting our planet and the communities that live on it, using profit and ‘shareholder value’ as their excuse. This cannot continue, it is not sustainable.

We have joined the B Corp movement, along with thousands of other like minded organisations, because we believe that business should be a force for good, and that in the long run it will be these companies that succeed. We are far from perfect and are on a journey to transform ourselves into a truly sustainable organisation that continues to deliver to our purpose to create urban freedom for happier lives.’’

Brompton shared some of the results of its B Impact Assessment, in which is scored 85.1:

Production impact
• In the last 5 years, Brompton’s London factory has cut its waste in half, now using 95% renewable energy, and almost 62% of solid waste was recycled.
• Brompton uses water recycling parts washing equipment, but recognises that to go further they need to better separate this cleaning waste.
• Brompton recycles everything from bicycle tyres to electronic motors, and has started using returnable packaging with several component suppliers to reduce waste. To increase its recycling rate it recognises the need to switch more of its supplier deliveries to returnable packaging.
• Brompton is a founding member of the Cycling Industry Sustainable Packaging Pledge. Brompton has also committed to removing plastic packaging from its products, and is focusing on designing a plastic free bike box.

Developing its employees
• Brompton is a London Living Wage certified employer, and invests heavily in training and upskilling its UK workforce.
• It has various training programmes such as its brazing trainee programme, which teaches new employees the highly skilled practice of brazing over the average course of a year, an integral part of the Brompton production process. All Brompton’s Brazers are trained in-house and come from a wider variety of different backgrounds and previous employment.

Enabling access to bicycles
• A primary goal for Brompton is to get people moving on bicycles. One way it does this is through its Brompton Bike hire scheme, which has significantly expanded in recent years across the entire UK and into Europe. And now has four different models of shared ownership: subscription, day hire, private and public mobility hubs, social memberships.
• Across all four Brompton Bicycle Hire schemes it estimates a total of 208 tonnes of carbon emissions have been avoided from bike journeys substituting car journey.
• Alongside this, Brompton works with community groups to provide access to bicycles for people that need it most. One example is its Wheels For Heroes (W4H) programme, launched in 2021 to provide free bicycles to NHS staff needing to get to work during the COVID pandemic.
• Since then, the St Barts Hospital Trust – the original partner for W4H – now has permanent Brompton Hire hubs at all its hospitals with approx. 500 St Barts staff taking part in the programme to date.

Providing a product for customer health and wellbeing
• B Corp formally recognised the health and wellbeing benefits Brompton bicycles gives to its customers.

• Brompton surveyed its customers and showed that a high proportion are using Brompton’s to build fitness or become happier in their daily lives. This can then be linked to Brompton’s purpose.

Future commitment
• This year, Brompton has produced its first annual Sustainability Report, which looks at Brompton’s impact on people, planet and activism. This will form the basis of Brompton’s future commitments to improving how it operates in all these areas.

Oscar Benjamin, Head of Sustainability at Brompton, added: “We have a long way to go yet but being B Corp Certified helps embed these values into our culture. It is part of the solution rather than the answer. It’s a useful tool that helps us deliver our purpose by providing checks and balances. It means we’re part of a global community with a shared framework and goal — to use our business as a force for good.”