What Hub is doing to not hate on Mother Nature

Green is the new black. It's pretty trendy right now, right? Unlike other trends, not burning up the planet is actually important. Bicycles have always been ahead of the curve on this trend. I mean, it's the most efficient way to get around! And as we all know 'efficient' means, "adj. 1. performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste" So there you go- a bicycle shop is inherently more ecologically responsible than, say oil drilling or drag car racing, but there's always room for improvement. Maybe you're sick of hearing about what companies are doing (or at least what they say they're doing...) to improve their greeny-ness, but I want to tell you about some stuff going on here at the shop.

Recycling (obvi)

Paper. plastic, your totally hosed chain and cassette (and other metal parts), tubes!, tires all get recycled here, natch.

Reducing

I'll admit, I'm very excited and this news was the motivation for this post- Hub now has tubes in bulk! Flat tires are one of the most common bike problems, so at the end of the day the ol' recycling bin looks like this:

And while recycling is great- not creating the waste in the first place is even better. You can now get tubes they way hippies get their granola and nutritional yeast. They're the very same tubes you know and love, but without the packaging. The most common road and mountain sizes are available in bulk, and if you want your tube to come in a package you still can. I won't judge.


Cleaners/solvents/grease/etc.

There's a bunch of this stuff that goes into tuning a bicycle. It gets a little tricky here, because it's hard to find straight forward information about all of this stuff, as most of what I can find comes from the companies themselves. I'm not a chemist, so I have to take the company's word for it. So far, I've been pretty happy with Pedro's and Finishline. They seem to have a good balance of effectiveness and biodegradability. If any one has suggestions on how I can find more (objective) information on this, I'm all ears.

Other little things

Compact fluorescent bulbs. Check. Choosing 'Ground' for shipping product. Check. Choosing products packaged in paper/cardboard over PVC clamshell packaging. Check (that was the deciding factor between two great options for bike multi-tools). Fans over A/C. Check. Printing work orders on scrap paper before recycling. Check.

Thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions or recommendations on how Hub can be even eco-friendlier drop a note to: info@hubbicycle.com (I promise I won't print out the email...)