Cycling the globe for a greener tomorrow

1st November 2023

“Cycling around the World”, the international cycling competition organised by Gebrüder Weiss, ended impressively. Together, 650 cyclists the world over covered a distance of 612,246km – more than 15 times around the globe – far surpassing their original goal to circle the earth seven times.

For six months, cyclists from all over the world hopped on their bikes and used a cycling app to record and add up the distances covered. The goal was to circle the globe seven times (a distance of 280,525km), with Gebrüder Weiss financing the planting of a new tree for every 40km completed. The 15 circumnavigations let to the planting of 7,000 new saplings in the company’s reforestation project in Nicaragua, in Central America.

This was the second time the logistics company has invited its employees to take part in the sports competition between April and September, after last year’s inaugural competition delivered a surprising six circumnavigations of the globe.

Frank Haas, head of communications at Gebrüder Weiss, is thrilled by the positive response: “This year’s large number of participants from all over the world has clearly exceeded our expectations. We thank all entrants for their outstanding commitment. Many participants were additionally motivated by the idea of helping to increase the size of our corporate forest. Meanwhile, a cycling community has evolved, demonstrating that we can achieve a lot together.”

The close finish between Janusz Mucha from Poland and Markus Knabl from Austria remained thrilling until the very end, when they shared first place in this year’s competition, each of them covering more than 17,000km.

Primaklima, a non-profit organisation active for 30 years, is the company’s cooperation partner for the reforestation project, which removes some 154 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere each year.