The McHenry County College added a custom bike rack to their campus to promote bicycle commuting over car driving

There's a quiet movement taking place on college campuses across the US that will have a tremendous impact on changing attitudes in the future about our planet's resources.

That movement involves the creation of sustainability departments on nearly every college campus these past 10 years and their efforts to implement and promote best practices to reduce our impact on the Earth.

Sustainability, according to a definition created by the United Nations and adopted by many organizations is basically: "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs."

In other words, don't grab up resources today so there's nothing left for our children tomorrow.

Some of the ways that colleges accomplish this is by focusing on activities such as:

Constructing "green" buildings

Advances in commercial bike rack laser cutting technology make it easy for towns or businesses to add unique bike racks with their own message or logo

Artistic commercial bike racks that double as works of art are breathing new life into city landscapes across America and with the technology available today, there are few limits to what you can create with your imagination.

With new advances in bicycle parking technology, you can literally create any type of design you want, either in the form of artistic bike racks in an interesting shape or  custom bike racks which use lasers to cut basically any type of image into a metal plate.

Here are some simple ideas to consider. But as we said, there are few limits on the type of unique bike racks y

Commercial bike racks in the shape of bicycles. Bike parking racks can now be ordered in any shape imaginable. These unique bike-shaped bike racks were added to the city by the Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District

Cities are finding out that when people see more bike share programs and commercial bike racks around town, they start to think about riding their bicycles more as an alternative means of transportation.

It's a simple chicken and egg on a bike premise. For example, one woman recounts about how she noticed a large bike parking corral in front of her favorite coffee shop. There were several bicycles locked to the bike parking racks installed there.

That prompted her to think, "Wouldn't it be fun to ride my bike to get coffee in the morning instead of driving?"

That's

Custom bike racks used by the Central Texas Council of Governments to encourage more bicycle riding and reduce air pollution

Sometimes a bike parking rack is more than a place to lock a bicycle.

In the case of the Central Texas Council of Governments, it's one more step toward creating cleaner air in a seven-county area.

With a grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the CTCOG recently purchased 60 custom bike racks from The Park and Facilities Catalog. These U-shaped, unique bike racks include a custom decal with the organization's air quality logo and an inspirational message: "Do your share for cleaner air."

A website,

Candace Wilson, a student at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, stands with her design for a custom bike rack to be installed on the campus

The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale teamed up with The Park and Facilities Catalog to create a custom bike rack to be permanently installed on their campus.

"We were very excited to work with The Park Catalog on this project," said Jeff LaLiberte, Director of Campus Relations at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. "We certainly believe in the benefits of bicycling as an alternative means of transportation to help the