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10/27/2020

Tips and tricks for e-bike battery care
Bike battery care: the most important questions answered
How to store and maintain an e-bike battery

Winter riders – an intrepid species indeed. Who would have thought that there are people who dare to hit the road in frosty temperatures? Most riders store their bike in the depths of their cellar during the colder months. And most e-bikes face the same fate every winter.

But how do you store your bike’s battery during its winter hiatus? What’s there to keep in mind? And which temperatures are really bad for it?

We’ve summarised the most important questions and answers relating to battery storage and maintenance. Read up on them and learn more!
How long does the service life of an e-bike battery last?

Just like other types of batteries, e-bike batteries tend to deteriorate over time. However, the individual life cycle of a battery isn’t cast in stone. Numerous external factors influence the battery’s service life. For instance, the duration and type of use but also the right care and storage.

Lithium ion batteries of the latest generation – which Simplon uses for all its e-bikes – are true powerhouses. With an integrated battery management system (BMS), they boast an impressively long service life. Some manufacturers claim their batteries can handle up to 1,000 full charging cycles. This equals an average riding performance of 60 kilometres per charge or 60,000 kilometres per battery. In ideal conditions, the standard life cycle of a bike battery is three to six years.
How far can you go on a fully charged battery?

A question that almost every biker asks ahead of buying a new e-bike: How far can I go on one charge? But there is no universal answer to that. It can take you from 20 kilometres to over 100. Why? Various factors influence the battery’s range – for instance, the chosen support level, air drag, the weight of the rider, tyre pressure and the terrain you’re riding on.

Are you planning the next summit conquest, or are you cruising through the city on flat terrain? Are you riding on a trail, on asphalt or on a forest road? Depending on the tour, the battery has to withstand different types of strain. And, of course, the number of watt-hours under your saddle plays an important role too. The most common types of batteries have between 200 and 625 watt-hours.
What to keep in mind for battery care and maintenance?

Don’t just throw your battery in a random corner for winter! This piece of equipment needs a bit of maintenance and care, too. We recommend taking it off before you clean it, and then wiping it down with a damp rag.

Caution: Do not use any caustic or corrosive cleaning products! They might damage the battery’s surface. You should also avoid using a high-pressure water jet on it – or, even worse, a steam jet.

Important: The plugs should be checked for damage from time to time, cleaned with a rag and then lubed with oil.
What’s the best way to store a bike battery?

By treating your e-bike battery carefully, you can significantly extend its service life. Correct storage plays an important role in that. Rule of thumb: Always store your battery in a dry place with temperatures between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius and without direct exposure to sunlight! For storage, the battery charge should ideally be between 30 and 60 percent.

Good to know: If you’re not a member of the aforementioned intrepid species of riders and prefer to leave your bike untouched in the cellar during the winter months, you should still check on it once in a while and recharge the battery, if necessary.
What’s especially important in winter?

You’re not the only one who feels most comfortable in warm clothing during the wet and cold winter months. An e-bike – but especially, the battery – loves to have it warm, too. Low temperatures reduce the battery’s capacity and thus its range.

Tip for winter riders: Detach the battery after every ride and take it into the warm apartment or office with you to make sure it doesn’t get too cold! Charge it at room temperature and only mount it again right before your next ride!

Good to know: High-quality batteries – like the ones used by Simplon for its bikes – are always equipped with the latest lithium ion technology. They’re better insulated and hardly show any power loss, even in colder temperatures.

Now that you know how to take care of an e-bike battery, all you’re missing is an e-bike? Go ahead and browse Simplon’s selection of e-bikes, e-mountain bikes and e-road bikes!

10/27/2020

The riding behaviour of eBikes, distractions in road traffic, regular maintenance – there are many aspects to riding safely with pedelecs. You can find useful tips here.

10/23/2020

Wheels of fortune: the pros and cons of e-bikes
These bikes allow cyclists to exercise safely and easily, writes Lesley Willis, and in Scotland you can get an interest-free loan, adds Geraldine Rooney. But Liz Meerabeau and Paul Blake add a note of scepticism

Peter Walker (‘I can just glide through traffic’: how e-bikes could answer our commuting problems, 17 May) has hit the spot with his article. I think the e-bike’s time has come. My electric bike is one year old on Thursday, and it was a 75th birthday present. I have only ever been a casual cyclist, but had given my old bike away, as my creaky knees – combined with living at the top of a hill – meant that I rarely used it.

But with my e-bike I feel so empowered. Mine is a simple one with a range of only about 16 miles, but during lockdown I have been exploring circuits in all directions, and come home both exhilarated and relaxed. It is so easy to get around to do a few errands that it often seems quicker than using a car and having to find parking.

I am sure it is good exercise, as I have to pedal to get the motor to assist me. And on Monday I turned the motor off for a while and cycled quite happily on the level – I’m sure my legs are stronger. I feel safer on the e-bike because I can keep up momentum going up hills and setting off at a junction without that moment of instability. The battery looks like a drinks bottle that clips on to the frame, and I just take it in with me to put on the charger for less than an hour to recharge.

If anyone is tempted by the idea, I strongly recommend giving it a try.
Lesley Willis
Alton, Hampshire

• Peter Walker’s article says e-bikes “are eligible for the tax-saving cycle-to-work scheme, but are not included in the system of government grants of up to £3,000 towards the costs of an electric car or moped”, but does not mention the interest-free loans available in Scotland (administered by the Energy Saving Trust). This provision by the Scottish government helps to spread the cost of an e-bike.
Geraldine Rooney
Edinburgh

In the opposite of nominative determinism, Peter Walker’s enthusiastic praise for e-bikes omits any reference to pedestrians. Safety is discussed only with reference to other road users, with a blanket statement that because at 15mph e-bikes go no faster than “many cyclists”, there is no indication that they are more dangerous than other bikes. Can he tell us what safety studies have been done in relation to pedestrians, particularly in shared space, and what discussions have been held with organisations such as the Royal National Institute of Blind People? Also, since the motors tend to be effective enough to propel bikes laden with shopping and children, what effect would the additional weight have in a collision with a pedestrian?
Liz Meerabeau
New Malden, London

• I must say that I find the plethora of articles at the moment arguing that the e-bike is the saviour of humanity rather irritating. Certainly I deeply regret getting mine – an elegant and allegedly unstealable e-bike that became the most expensive ornament I’ve ever purchased. Unstealable it may be, but unrepairable if you get a puncture it certainly was. Unless you only cycled within walking distance of the company’s London shop, the only place with the facilities to remove the wheel, it was not a practical proposition.
Paul Blake

10/23/2020

E-Bikes Are All the Rage. Should They Be?

Two new studies shed light on whether pedal-assisted electric bikes provide good exercise, and how safe (or unsafe) they might be.

Is riding an e-bike good exercise? Is riding an e-bike safe?

With interest in and sales of pedal-assisted electric bikes surging during the pandemic, those questions share a growing urgency. Two timely and soothing new studies of e-bike riders’ exertions and injuries suggest that the answer to both questions can be a qualified yes, though anyone riding an e-bike needs to remain aware that the experience is certainly cycling with a kick to it.

As most of us are likely aware, bike riding has become extremely popular and aspirational this year, since so many of us are otherwise housebound. Riding gets us outside, active and heading somewhere — anywhere — else. But it also involves distance, hills, wind and sometimes leaden legs, which can be daunting.

Enter e-bikes. Short for electric bikes, these are road or mountain bikes with an added battery-powered motor that gooses our pedaling power. Most e-bikes fall into one of three types. Class 1 e-bikes provide assistance while you pedal, up to a top speed of 20 miles per hour. Class 2 models power your ride even if you are not pedaling, but click off at 20 miles per hour. And Class 3 e-bikes assist pedaling up to a top speed of 28 miles per hour. (Local regulations vary about which bikes are allowed on bike paths, trails or roads.

Given their ability to help us cover multiple miles without requiring a spousal sag wagon, e-bikes sales have soared by 70 percent or more each month since the pandemic began, according to industry statistics. But this popularity may carry a price. Simon Cowell, the acerbic judge on “America’s Got Talent,” reported on Twitter he was hospitalized this month after fracturing his back during his first ride on a new electric trail bike, an exceptionally high-powered British version of an electric bicycle.

Many of us have heard other (sometimes apocryphal) stories about e-bike accidents. And some people wonder if riding an e-bike, with its pedal assistance, even counts as a workout.

On that last count, though, the first of the new studies is reassuring. Published in July in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, it involved 101 healthy adult men and women in Hamburg, Germany, who agreed to alternate riding either a standard bicycle or an e-bike over two separate two-week periods

Each volunteer chose his or her preferred e-bike model, with most picking road bikes having top assisted speeds of about 20 miles per hour. To compensate for the novelty factor, participants spent a couple of weeks getting used to their e-bikes before the study period. The researchers also provided their volunteers with activity monitors, heart rate monitors and a specialized phone app where the riders could record their trips, distance and how physically draining each ride had felt.

The scientists did not offer their volunteers any suggestions, however, about where, when or how often to ride, says Hedwig Stenner, a research associate at the Institute of Sports Medicine at Hannover Medical School, who led the new study. The researchers wanted to see how people, on their own initiative, would use the different bikes and whether their riding would change with the e-bikes.

Electric assistance did change their habits, the researchers found. In general, the men and women rode more often during the two weeks with e-bikes, averaging about five rides a week then, versus three a week with the standard cycles. Interestingly, the distances of most people’s rides did not budge, whichever type of bike they rode; their rides were not lengthier on the e-bikes, but they were more frequent.

Their heart rates also differed. In general, people’s heart rates were about 8 percent lower when they pedaled e-bikes, but still consistently hovered within the range considered moderate exercise. As a result, during the two weeks when the volunteers rode e-bikes, they accumulated sufficient minutes of moderate physical activity to meet the standard exercise recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate activity. When they rode the standard bikes, they did not.

Most also reported liking the pedal assist, Ms. Stenner says. More than two-thirds of the participants told the researchers they enjoyed the e-bikes and could imagine using them “for many years,” according to a final study questionnaire.

But whether e-bikes might pose a greater risk for injuries than standard bicycles remains an open question. “No serious injuries were reported to us,” during the research, Ms. Stenner says.

The other new study of e-bikes, which was published in December in Injury Prevention, is more cautionary, however. For it, researchers at New York University’s School of Medicine combed a national database of emergency room visits for information about accidents related to riding a standard bicycle, motorized scooter or an e-bike from 2000 to 2017.

They found plenty of reports. More than nine million men, women and children showed up in an emergency room after being hurt while riding a standard bike during those 17 years. Another 140,000 injured themselves on scooters, and about 3,000 on e-bikes (an uncommon novelty in the early years of the study). In general, the e-bike injuries were the most severe and likely to require hospitalization.

Why e-bikers tended to hurt themselves more seriously than other riders is not clear from the injury data, says Charles DiMaggio, an injury epidemiologist at NYU Langone Health, who led the new study. But speed likely played a role. “We know that e-bikes can go faster than traditional pedal cycles,” he says, unless you are a bike racer who bombs down hills at more than 20 or 30 miles per hour. “And we know that increased speed often results in more-severe injuries.”

But there is encouraging news embedded within the injury statistics, he says. In the earliest years covered by the study, a majority of e-bike injuries involved children under age 18, who seem to have been the earliest adopters of this new cycling technology. The incidence among this group declined precipitously in the later years of the study, though, even as it rose among people aged 45 to 65. This shift could indicate that the younger riders became “more familiar” with how to ride e-bikes safely, Dr. DiMaggio says, a development that, with time and experience, should reduce injuries among other, older riders. Or the numbers could suggest that fewer young people are using e-bikes, leaving their parents or grandparents to be the ones now to try out e-bikes, and fall off them.

In either case, though, the study’s takeaway is clear, Dr. DiMaggio says. Before venturing out onto roads or paths on an e-bike, “familiarize yourself with the bike,” he says. “Wear a helmet. Follow traffic rules. Don’t drink and ride.”

More Tips on Riding an E-Bike Safely

E-bikes, at heart, are bikes, so if you can ride a bike, you can ride an e-bike. “You’ll just feel as if you have superhero legs” on the amplified, electric versions, says Ian Kenny, the e-bike brand leader for Specialized, a bike company that makes electric road and mountain bikes.

E-bikes boost cycling speeds, though, so most new riders would benefit from some practice spins in a protected area with little traffic before venturing onto roads or paths, Mr. Kenny says. Look for a large, empty parking lot or a road closed to traffic during the pandemic for your first few rides.

During these shakeout sessions, use your bicycle’s lowest assistance setting. (Different e-bikes offer different levels of pedal assistance.) “E-bikes accelerate faster” than standard bikes, Mr. Kenny points out, and that sudden momentum can disconcert and bobble unprepared riders.

Practice slowing and braking, too. “Because e-bikes are heavier and travel faster, they will require more time and distance to stop” than a standard bike, Mr. Kenny says.

When you do head for the open roads or paths, remember to monitor your battery life. The miles can slip by while your pedaling is aided, but the return trip will be long and grueling if you have drained your battery, especially since e-bikes, in general, are heavier than standard bicycles.

Finally, wear a mask if you are around other riders and pedestrians, and perhaps add a jaunty bell to your bike, if it was not standard equipment. Sound it before passing anyone.

“Treat others as you would like to be treated,” Mr. Kenny says. “It’s never fun to be startled by a zooming cyclist.”

10/22/2020

Riding an electric bike made me realize I really didn’t understand e-bikes

Easier cycling, but not necessarily faster

When I first picked up the Volt bike I tried to ride it the only way I knew, like a normal bicycle.

This was a mistake.

Turns out, I hadn't grasped the purpose of electric bikes.

I spend most of my life on two wheels. Throughout the course of the working week I like to commute into the TechRadar offices on a scooter and bicycle on alternating days, with one keeping me fit, and the other just being plain fun.

If I’m being honest with myself, I could probably cycle in a little more often then I currently do. The journey is only around half an hour on a bike, and it’s little more than laziness that has me wasting fuel carting my lazy ass to and fro from the office.

But I like keeping the scooter around, not least because it’s helpful on the evenings and weekends when I travel slightly further afield.

So, what if I could get something that does both?

I thought an electric bike, or e-bike as they’ve come to be known, would be just the thing. Volt Bikes were kind enough to hook me up with a Volt Infinity (£2,699 / around $3,491 / AU$4,380) to try out for a couple of weeks, and as it turns out I had completely the wrong idea about what an electric bike could do.
Re-learning how to ride a bike

The most important piece of advice I can give anyone hopping onto the saddle of an electric bike for the first time is not to treat it like any bicycle you have experienced before.

you’ll arrogantly start to convince yourself that you’re responsible for your own speed

The Infinity has a pretty powerful motor in it that’s capable of getting you up to 15mph (a top speed imposed by regulations rather than technology) fairly quickly, but aside from when you first push off you almost barely feel it.

This means that pretty soon you’ll arrogantly start to convince yourself that you’re responsible for your own speed, while it’s almost entirely down to the electric motor.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you think you’re responsible for your speed, then pretty soon you’ll convince yourself that you can go faster with just a little more pedaling.

You won’t of course, and the result will be that you’ll exhaust yourself trying to take over from an electric motor which is always going to be more powerful than you.

Instead you have to re-learn how to ride a bike. Learn to stop pushing yourself once you reach the bike’s top-speed (around 15mph in ‘Normal’ mode), and just pedal slowly to keep the motor engaged.

You won’t go any faster than you would have done normally, but the difference is that you’ll put in less than half of the effort.

The battery has a range of around 40 miles and is attached to the frame of the bike. To charge it you use a key to unlock it from the frame, and then plug it into a standard wall outlet.

I charged the battery overnight, but you could also carry it into an office if you want the satisfaction of not paying for the electricity yourself.
Commuting and the long-ride

As I mentioned in my introduction, there are two kinds of trip I take on a regular basis. The first is my daily commute, a mostly downhill half-hour roll into the TechRadar offices in Paddington, London.

Second is the round trip to my parents on the other side of London, a significantly longer 22 mile round trip that can be cycled in an hour and a half normally, or driven in an hour.

The longer trip saw the biggest benefit of an electric bike. While I normally have to stay overnight to recover from the hour and a half of riding, the electric motor meant that I put in significantly less effort and could easily do the return trip on the same day. That’s three hours of cycling in total, and I felt about as out of breath as I’d be after a brisk walk.

Ideally the cycle would have been shorter, but ultimately I came to realise the bike is very good at allowing you to travel at the same speed for less effort, rather than letter you go faster for the same effort as a manual bike.

With my daily commute the benefit of the electric bike was a lot less pronounced. Being able to get up to cruising speed almost immediately from traffic lights was certainly helpful, but ultimately over such a short distance I rarely feel
A tech tour de force

But it’s not just a powerful electric motor that the Volt Infinity is packing in the hi-tech stakes.

This bike also makes use of a fancy electric gear-shifter, allowing you to cycle through your gears with the press of a button rather than the standard manual levers used by most conventional bikes.

While the functionality felt very futuristic, for the most part it felt like it was taking away control of something that I was perfectly happy to handle myself. Especially annoying was the way it would cycle down the gears while we waited at traffic lights.

In theory this was supposed to allow me to push off in a nice low gear, but in practice it took a couple of seconds to automatically switch, leading me to struggle against the bike while its internals worked out what it wanted to do.
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Volt does sell electric bikes equipped with more traditional gear shifters, and we’d advise giving these a go if you’ve spent a lot of time cycling in your life.

All of this information is shown off on a handy little display attached to the handle-bars, which also contains other details such as your battery level and current speed.
You can also turn the bike’s lights on and off from this same display, which was a feature we didn’t realize we wanted until we had it for ourselves.
A solution to all my problems?

So could the Volt Infinity become my single method of transportation?

Ultimately, the types of trips I make most often mean that the e-bike doesn’t offer enough to set it aside from a manual bicycle. The problem with my commute isn’t that it tires me out too much, but it’s that it isn’t quick enough.

I need more speed, not less effort.

With that said, the Infinity was a revelation for my longer, more hilly, weekend rides. By the end of it I felt about as tired as after a ride one third of the length, and I’d be much more likely to cycle rather than drive as a result.

If my daily commute was more like this, with a little bit of length and a couple of decent hills, the Volt Infinity would be exactly what I’d need.

10/22/2020

Hey, guys. Dustin here, CEO of Six Three Zero. Today I'm going to talk about how to ride an EBike or how to operate an EBike. Riding an EBike can be a super fun endeavor. It's very similar to riding a normal bicycle, but there are some elements that are different, some elements that are the same. It...

10/20/2020

10 Tips for Improving Your Electric Bike’s Range

Are you concerned about your electric bike’s range? Would you like to know some tricks for extending your e-bike range when you have that extra errand to run but don’t have that much charge left in your battery?

Electric bike range is a common concern among e-bikers and I would like to offer some tips that will help you make the most of your electric bike ride. Some of these tips are obvious but I have thrown in some additional tips that may help you add a few more miles or kilometers to your e-bike range.

Electric Bike Range Tips

1. Okay, let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. Make sure your battery is fully charged. The reason I mention this is because sometimes it is easy to forget about charging your battery after a hard day at work. Create a routine so that you immediately plug in your battery when you get home.

2. Pedal harder! This may be obvious too but it needs to be mentioned. For instance you may need to run some extra errands and realize that you don’t have that much juice (charge in your battery) left. You could reduce the assist setting (or use less throttle) and pedal more to compensate for a low battery. I have limped my e-bike home this way without totally draining the battery.

Another big tip is to pedal harder at the right time. A lot of energy is consumed when you accelerate from a stop. If you pedal hard to get your bike off the line this will help conserve your battery energy. Additionally, hills take a lot of energy so pedaling a little harder on the hills will help improve your range.

3. Take it easy and enjoy a slow ride. Wind resistance can really drain you and your battery’s energy. If you need to extend your range, riding a little slower will reduce the wind drag. Oh yeah and riding slower is usually safer!

4. Consider a second charger. If you have a long commute to work and errands to run, you may need more range than your battery can provide. You could have a charger at work so that you can recharge during the day. And if your boss is concerned about the electricity bill you can tell them it will cost pennies to charge your e-bike battery!

5. Buy a second battery? If you have a really long commute or ride route that you like to do it may be worth buying a second battery to add to your bike. Some electric bike manufacturers offer the option of adding a second battery to double your range. Check with your local shop or e-bike manufacturer for more inf
o.
Keep your tire pressure up. This will make a big difference in how much energy (electric & human) is required to move you and your e-bike around. Low tire pressure can make your electric bike feel sluggish. For normal city style e-bikes I recommend a tire pressure of 50-60 psi. Don’t over inflate your tires though because it can lead to a very rough ride! Here is a floor pump I recommend.

7. Replace your old battery. If you have had your e-bike and battery for a while, the amount of energy your battery can hold will most likely have decreased. I recommend replacing your battery once the decreased range gets annoying. Your local electric bike shop can help you with this or you could contact your e-bike manufacturer.

8. Use the regenerative braking feature. Some electric bike systems have a regenerative braking feature (Bionx for example) that turns the motor into a generator in order to act like a brake and put a little bit of charge back into your battery. Typically this is activated by a sensor on one of the brake levers (usually the rear brake lever). Please note that there is debate in the e-bike world as to how much energy is actually recaptured using regenerative braking.

9. Take care of your battery! If you can, store your battery at room temperature. Batteries don’t like really cold or hot temperatures. In general it is a good idea to charge your battery often to keep it topped off. If you don’t ride your electric bike much in the winter, store your battery fully charged and charge it every couple of months. Try not to leave it plugged in for more than 24 hrs.

10. Oil your chain. This will improve your pedaling efficiency and if you have a motor that powers through the cranks of your bike (Panasonic or Bosch for example) it will improve your motor’s efficiency too. After you oil your chain let it sit for a few minutes before you wipe off the excess oil with a rag.

I hope these tips help you to improve your electric bike range. The best way is to implement these tips today and make them a habit.

Do you have any questions on these tips? Do you have some electric bike range tips of your own that you would like to share with the Electric Bike Report community? Please leave them in the comment section below.

Thanks!

10/20/2020

Ditch your car, delete your Uber app, skip the subway. Now is the time to get an electric bike.

08/18/2020

How sales shopping is killing the planet

Christmas has passed and New Year is just around the corner. And the sales continue. Things started six weeks before Christmas with Singles Day, which began in China and is now the world’s biggest shopping day. This was followed by Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale, the pre-Christmas sales and now the period of post-Christmas or New Year sales. Soon it will be time for Valentine’s Day sales, Easter sales and so on. The sale events don’t seem to pause but instead persevere throughout the year and in various forms.

For retailers, these sales are a great opportunity to liquidate unsold or off-season stock into cash, make room for new stock and cross-sell existing stock via impulse or unplanned buying. For consumers, sales provide one or more “legit reasons” for spending and gifting, either to oneself, others or a bit of both. Indulgent spending is expected and even encouraged when discounts or bargains are widely available to be snatched up.

Putting their benefits aside, sales also come with numerous costs. Emotionally, they may drive consumers to spend money they do not have and then feel regret or guilt afterwards. Financially, they may entrap shoppers into (more) financial debt because of the faux sense of “entitled” indulgence or spending when there is a sale on. Psychologically, it may exacerbate compulsive buying disorder, also known as “oniomania”, by legitimising gifting and spending.

All this adds up to some serious environmental costs. Marketing academics like me often assess how people act through certain “behavioural lenses”, and I think there are two that are applicable here:
Throwaway culture

The throwaway lens, particularly visible in fashion, suggests that the more we buy, the more we throw away. While the correlation is yet to established empirically, it is logical to think that sales promote more buying and in turn mean there is more to throw away.
This proposition can be supported by the phenomenon of dwindling living space. In the UK, bedrooms are shrinking and on average living rooms in new build homes are a third smaller than in the 1970s. But despite this, people are still buying a lot more stuff than in the 1970s.

To make room for acquired sales items, people are likely to get rid of “pre-loved” items and harm the environment. For example, a UK parliament report in early 2019 found that in the country “around 300,000 tonnes of textile waste ends up in household black bins every year”, which is about 5kg per person. This is then sent to landfill or incinerators. The report notes that “less than 1%” of the material used to produce clothing is recycled. Our throwaway behaviour costs the planet.
Sales mean more products are returned

The product returns lens suggests a possible correlation between sales and the rate of product returns. Sales such as Black Friday have become digitally-oriented, with around three quarters of purchases being made online.

Online returns can involve a number of environmentally damaging activities. Consumers sending items back, and couriers collecting and redistributing them, all means extra driving and thus traffic congestion and carbon emissions. Cleaning, repairing and/or repackaging returned items mean consuming more natural resources and potentially using more materials that contain fossil fuels or palm oils. Processing, transporting and landfill of single-use or non-recyclable packaging used in returns mean more land use and a greater carbon footprint.

All of these activities are usually “invisible” to us, the consumer, and yet can have dire consequences for the environment. For instance, Vogue Business reported that in the US returns alone produce around 2.27 million tonnes of landfill waste and 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year, “equivalent to the amount of trash generated by 5 million people in a year”.

I don’t want to undermine the commercial value of sales nor the consumption joy they can bring when done wisely. However I cannot help wondering whether these sales can strike a balance between commercial, consumption and green value.
As we increasingly witness and experience the impacts of climate change, we do need to be (more) wary of our consumerist behaviours and subsequent environmental costs. A little thought for the environment might be just the way to enrich the shopping joy, or mitigate the spending guilt, experienced in sales events? Let’s spend (more) positively to protect our planet.

San Diego Scooter Repair

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