Sustainability
Welcome to the woom sustainability zone!
This is where we report on our efforts to protect the planet, fight climate change, promote social justice and ensure equal opportunity for all, and it's where you can track the progress of these efforts. One important point before we get started: We value your feedback and suggestions on how we can optimise our company and our products.
woom Sustainability Report
Our annual sustainability report gives a comprehensive and transparent account of our commitment towards more sustainable business and covers the measures we're taking to make the world a little bit better.
Our commitment to sustainable mobility
Our business model: We produce and sell premium ultra-light children's bikes. Every woom bike is designed to bring joy into the lives of multiple children rather than one single owner.
Our Mission: to create products of exceptional quality that provide our customers unforgettable experiences. Our hope is that people who experience these magical moments on their bikes in childhood will grow up to be adults who regularly ride their bikes and become ambassadors of the transport revolution.
We see cycling as a powerful force for making the shift to climate-friendly, healthy, efficient, and enjoyable urban and rural mobility. Every single woom bike brings the world one step closer to sustainable travel and a more livable future.
A small step forward every day
Each woom bike is a sustainable product with the potential to make the world just a little bit better. But we don't stop there. We have a multilevel process aimed at improving sustainability in every aspect of our production.
We see this is an ongoing process. But we do our very best to do a little bit better every single day.
Where we stand, and where we are headed
- We are committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations. These 17 goals provide a blueprint for addressing the global challenges we currently face, including poverty, climate change, inequality, pollution, conflict and injustice. All 17 of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals are interconnected and carry equal weight. → https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/
There are plenty of videos explaining the SDGs, but here's one of our favourites:
- To achieve these goals, we work with a team of international experts specialising in corporate social responsibility (CSR). The CSR team continuously evaluates our sustainability activities and systematically monitors whether we are on the right path to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Made in Europe: We are in the process of creating new assembly and production capacities in the European Union. Our aim is to be manufacturing for Europe in Europe in the near future. This will make it easier for us to ensure the best working conditions at our suppliers' facilities while shortening our transport routes and making them more environmentally friendly.
- As a leading manufacturer of bikes, clothing and cycling accessories for children, we feel an obligation to run our company in a way that reflects our commitment to ethical, social and environmental responsibility. We expect the same commitment from our business partners and suppliers, and we call on them to use responsible and sustainable production processes as well. Going forward, we want to work exclusively with suppliers that put in place sustainability standards on a par with our own and disclose the relevant details.
- Code of Conduct: With a view to ensuring that our values and principles filter through every stage of the supply chain, we have worked with our external CSR experts to create the woom Code of Conduct. It is based on the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the Conventions of the UN International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and applicable law at the respective production sites. As of September 2020, all of our suppliers of clothing and accessories (soft goods) had already signed our Code of Conduct. We are working hard to increase the number of suppliers signing the document and are in negotiations to this end with the rest of our woom contractual partners.
- At all our woom sites, we have created an environment where diversity is celebrated and no form of discrimination is tolerated – whether based on gender, ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation.
- woom is a family-friendly company that offers its employees generous benefits. We also encourage our staff members to travel to work by bike.
- From 2021:We will aim to produce all woom advertising materials in line with the Austrian Ecolabel. https://www.umweltzeichen.at/en/home/start
Our initiatives
The UN Sustainable Development Goals require companies to minimise the negative impacts of their business operations and maximise the positive impacts. woom has partnered with a range of NGOs across various sectors to make this possible. Here are just a couple of examples:
- woom has been supporting Caritas social counselling services since summer 2020. Many families already on the verge of poverty found themselves facing even more social and financial challenges when the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Caritas is a trusted partner, helping us to ensure that our help gets to where it is needed most. https://www.caritas-wien.at/hilfe-angebote/beratung-nothilfe/soziale-finanzielle-notlagen/sozialberatung/
- Bells for a Better Life: For our 2019 Christmas campaign, we launched the Bells for a Better Life fund raiser in support of World Bicycle Relief. This NGO is committed to helping people in rural developing regions by providing them bikes as a way out of poverty and a chance at a better future. https://woombikes.com/en_US/xmas
