VéloColour & Sustainability
We are a small company but we believe, no matter your size, it is up to all of us to change the way things are done. We could wait around for corporations and governments to impart regulatory change but perhaps we’re impatient. We’re not seeing it happen fast enough so we’re doing it ourselves. VéloColour believes that the fight against climate change is not about one big change it is about a million little ones.
While green-washing is trendy these days, we are truly committed to changing how business is done. All aspects of our production methods and materials are being evaluated and lots of change is happening in our Toronto shop. We’re not stopping at the manufacturing level though. We have to do this together and right now we offer a number of incentives to help reduce waste and lower our collective CO2 footprint.
Waste and Co2 reduction incentives:
VéloColour wants to reward you for making cleaner choices and we have a growing list of ways that we are doing that.
Replace & recycle
Get 15% off any VéloColour product for bringing in your broken, unusable or unwanted small cycling bags, ride wallets and tool rolls. We have partnered with TerraCycle to collect and recycle this old material because we believe so strongly in keeping it out of land fill. Whether it’s an old bag of ours or another one you’ve had for 30 years, we’ll take care of it.
In-store by bike
Get 15% off your VéloColour product when you arrive by bicycle. You know that we believe bicycles are the best way to travel and we want to encourage everyone to use a bike for their daily errands.
Online with friends
We ship our bags all over the world. In an effort to reduce shipping individual products we now offer a “group buy” option where you and your friends can order four or more bags together and get 10% off the entire order no matter what else you buy. Added to that you’ll save on shipping as well so how can you lose?
What else are we doing?
In short? Everything we can. There is no time to lose in battle against waste and Co2 emissions. We have a quickly growing list of initiatives to reduce our solvent and material waste. Below is a list of what we are doing today and what we will be doing as soon as we can. As new practices are added we will be updating the list here.
Latex glove recycling
Paint shops use a lot of protective latex gloves, there’s no way around it. We use them as long as we can but eventually they reach the end of their useable life. Instead of disposing of these ripped and torn gloves, we pay to have them recycled into new, useable material.
Paint mask recycling
With all of the detailed painting we do, a fair bit of paint masking is used. All of the silicone-lined backing material (like the stuff stickers come on) is now recyclable - but not through our municipal programs, - it has to go through some specific processes. We collect every last piece of this backing and ship it off to be specially handled and recycled. It may cost a bit but we think that’s the cost of doing business.
Off-cut material recycling
You might be surprised how many little bits of scraps are swept off the sewing studio floor and end up in the trash. We are a small facility but still end up with many pails of tough nylon thread and off-cuts of X-Pac, Cordura and others that are too small to use. We make sure every last scrap of material heads off, in conjunction with our in-store bag recycling program, to be turned in to new useable material.
Water-based paint transition
As of 2019, VéloColour has transitionned completely to a water-based paint system for all our colour coats. We continue testing new paint technologies as we search for high-quality alternatives for our primer and clear coats. The goal is a 50% solvent reduction as soon as possible.
Starting with recycled materials
Our true goal is to not only recycle all of our waste material, but to produce all of our bags with completely recycled material. There is a growing number of companies that recycle materials like nylon and turn it back into useable yardage of fabric to begin a new life. There are however, few facilities offering this material to small producers like us. We are doing our best to source recycled material and are confident we will soon have a solution that we can proud of.
Getting more of you on bikes
We at VéloColour are full-time, year-round bicycle commuters. While we know not everyone wants to ride a bike in -20C, here in Toronto or wherever you might be there is still plenty of beautiful riding weather to be had. We think bikes are one of the best ways to reduce Co2 emissions, reduce city congestion and put a little joy in your life everyday, so we are going to keep pushing and encouraging and thinking up ways to get more of you riding to work, or school, or to pick up groceries.