BEAMZ Trust CIC – Saving the Planet with Wooden Bicycles!
BEAMZ is a Southampton based social enterprise dedicated to creating three vital impacts. We believe these three impacts have so many interactions and feedbacks that they really represent one big multifaceted problem.
1. Climate Change. Bicycles are already know to be a powerful weapon against climate change. BEAMZ are building the bikes from locally growing hardwood poles – which we would contend is the worlds most sustainable material. Substituting carbon negative wood for high embodied energy metals creates a saving of 60kg of CO2. Wood is, and always has been a high strength material, but using it in it’s natural pole form gives even greater strength.
2. Biodiversity. The ideal method of growing poles is in coppice woodland. Harvesting coppice wood does not kill the tree, and unleashes a woodland flowering, supporting in turn invertebrates and pollinators, vital to food production and the wildlife food-chain.
3. Wellbeing. Poor wellbeing, ranging from a feeling of sadness to existential anxiety and depression is unsurprising against the backdrop of environmental collapse. The good news is that creating high-wellbeing jobs and volunteering opportunities including working in woods, with wood, with your hands and working to make a difference, are all evidenced to be excellent for supporting and rebuilding mental health.
The bikes look and feel fabulous and attract attention wherever they go. They take our vital message from the woodlands onto the city streets.