Veloplus

With 10 shops and an online shop, Veloplus is a leading Swiss retailer and manufacturer of bicycles and related accessories. Veloplus is convinced that the role of the bicycle as an ecologically sensible and space-efficient transport method is becoming increasingly important. In connection with the development of an adult bike for Veloplus’ own brand, ETH juniors was asked to carry out an environmental study.

The environmental study should be able to show that the adult bicycle results in the lowest possible ecological footprint over its entire life cycle, whereby CO2 equivalent is calculated.  For the environmental study, several areas of the life cycle were analysed in detail. The ecological footprint of the different frame materials, the logistic processes and the life cycle as well as the spare parts were calculated and compared.

As a result, Veloplus was able to show what the ecological footprint of the future adult bicycle will look like. It was possible to show how the ecological footprint could be further reduced, as different manufacturing, logistics and life cycle scenarios were compared. In addition to the documentation of the results, Veloplus was provided with a calculation tool for CO2 equivalents which also proposes the CO2 compensation.