Gerylle Vanmarie Palabay
Colegio de San Juan de Letran
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Bambike is a profitable, Filipino company that designs and manufactures handmade bicycles. The company’s innovative use of materials such as bamboo allows it to produce some of the greenest bikes on the planet. Skilled craftsmen from a rural area of Tarlac, Philippines, train to become bike builders called BamBuilders. The company earns revenue both from exporting bikes and conducting bicycle-based ecotourism. It was founded in 2010.
Bambike designs and builds durable bicycles out of bamboo, Abaca fiber, resin, and aluminum. This is not the first company to use bamboo as a bicycle manufacturing material, but this company’s innovative designs and high quality standards have allowed them to sell these bikes on an international scale.
Bryan McClelland, who is Filipino-American, founded Bamb Ecological Technology with support from an NGO named Gawad Kalinga. He founded Bambike as an offshoot of this organization. He explains that “Our goal is to do better business and to make the greenest bikes on the planet.”
Although the company was founded with some support from Gawad Kalinga, they are incorporated independently and do not rely on the NGO for financial support.
The company’s core business activities produce direct economic and environmental benefits. The benefits to the employees are clear. Bambike provides high skill jobs in a rural area in which such work is scarce. Most of its employees are earning wages that are roughly double what they earned before joining the company. They also receive benefits, including retirement contribution and healthcare. Essentially, the training BamBuilders receive is a pathway to the middle class.
Bambike also contributes to broader economic growth. Some of the bikes are also used for ecotourism, supporting more jobs in the region and providing a reason for tourists to visit this area. Also, because these bikes are an export product, this company’s activities improve the Philippines’ balance of trade. Much has been written on the multiplier effect of increased exports, and the implications for national standards of living.
The environmental benefits are both immediate and long-term. Since bamboo is a carbon-negative building material, Bambike’s products may be the greenest bikes in existence. The bikes are made by hand, meaning the manufacturing process is also low in energy intensity. Finally, because bikes can displace the need for cars, the product itself contributes to the world’s emissions-free transportation infrastructure.
Bambike profits from manufacturing and selling bamboo bikes, and from conducting bicycle tours.
The company provides high skill jobs and a sustainable product that discourages automotive transport.
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Bryan McClelland, President and CEO of Bambike
