Deceuninck-QuickStep has calculated its carbon footprint as the first step towards reducing it until it eventually becomes a carbon-neutral cycling team.
The Belgian WorldTour squad, which now
counts Ireland’s Sam Bennett among its number, said it has calculated its
carbon footprint at 1,288 tons of CO2 per year.
It added that was the “equivalent of driving a car 179 times around the world or 539 return flights between Brussels and New York”.
“The amount of forestation required to capture this amount of CO2 is the equivalent of around 3,099 football pitches,” the team said.
The team is responsible for the same amount of CO2 emissions that would result from charging 149,015,522 smart phones.
While it plans to make a significant amount of changes to how it recycles and sorts refuse, the team is also getting involved in a forestation project close to Mont Ventoux in France.
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While it did not specify exactly what its involvement would be other than an expansion of a forested area, its CO2 footprint would take a significant amount of forestation work to offset.
It's annual footprint would be offset by growing 19,000 tree seedlings for a decade or from 1,526 acres of forest growing for one year.
As well as committing to forestation, it will also make other changes to its day to day operations, listing these measures in what it describes as its “manifesto of changes”.
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This includes reducing the use of plastic in the next two years and increasing recycling as well as creating "consciousness and networking" among the team’s partners and suppliers.
It will also promote the selling of recycled products through the team’s digital platform and encourage fans and partner staff to travel more via bicycle.
The team also intends to reduce the energy consumption at its headquarters, divide recycling and waste and use biodegradable products as much as possible.
Deceuninck-QuickStep marketing and communications manager Alessandro Tegner said the team travelled all over the world each year but was determined to become the world’s first carbon neutral cycling team over time.
“We see this as a long-term process of educating and changing habits and it is not about just one thing,” he said.
“Like everything we do as a team, we want this to be about everybody getting involved; the riders, staff, sponsors, supporters and those around us at races and events.”
In a bid to offset its carbon footprint it was supporting a project to provide and install a safe water supply to the Kaliro District in Uganda, which it said would help reverse deforestation there.
The second offset scheme would come in the form of partnering with Centre Régional de la Propriété Forestière near Mont Ventoux.
It is implementing a number of conservation and reforestation projects in the area, which is a habitat for wolves.
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