Pioneering Sustainability in Professional Cycling
BEAT’s mission for sustainability
In 2016, BEAT Cycling Club embarked on an inspiring mission: to build a professional cycling team independent of the unstable, sponsor-driven models that dominate the sport. Instead, BEAT is a true club, with thousands of members and partners ensuring a sustainable financial foundation—ensuring its presence in 2050 and beyond. By working on this mission, they hope to inspire other cycling clubs (whether professional or not) to do the same.
BEAT’s sustainability lead, Twan, initially laid the groundwork with his master’s thesis, which included a preliminary CO2 footprint analysis. However, he soon realized that this approach needed a more robust, data-driven strategy to be viable long-term. That’s when BEAT turned to Salacia Solutions.
Uncovering the data and pioneering sustainability in the sector
We know that it all begins with data and transparency, which are essential before making an impact on finance and sustainability. This is why we stepped in to help BEAT turn its sustainability vision into a reality by streamlining the data collection process. Together, we conducted a comprehensive inventory of BEAT’s operational data for their first sustainability report.
Conducting the data inventory right the first time was an extensive but also valuable process for the long term. BEAT discovered that they did have a lot of information, but there were also some gaps present. This led them to go into discussion with their suppliers and even make plans to partner with bike manufacturers for a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). In the end, this leads to more insight in the whole value chain, where BEAT is promoting sustainability broadly across the sector as a pioneer. All data came together in their first sustainability report in 2024.
Key learnings and action plans
The process allowed BEAT to dive deeper into its operations, translating complex data into actionable insights. For example, they uncovered that the impact of transport and logistics on the cycling club is more than half of the CO2 footprint. They were already trying to limit their flights as much as possible, but the insight that the emissions of trucks are also substantial leads them to consider how to solve this in innovative ways. They started creating insight into their race schedule, analyzing if it is possible to modify this to travel the least number of kilometers as possible from country to country.
Long term and industry wide improvement
Importantly, BEAT is now able to track every year if their plans and actions for improvement really have an impact on the footprint.
They are setting a new standard in the world of cycling, showing the world that with the right tools, sustainable operations and top-tier sports can go hand in hand. In the sustainability report they now demonstrate what’s possible, acting as a model for the industry and continuously learning and improving to inspire future generations.
