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Ortovox aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2024

The brand’s commitment to the environment is as much about consumer communication as it is about reviewing its production processes.

Ortovox is a leading brand for what concerns all-around protection: it produces emergency equipment, backpacks and technical clothing designed to make hiking, climbing, ski mountaineering and mountaineering increasingly effective, functional and comfortable. This brand not only has the very concept of mountains in its DNA, but also the theme of environmental protection and conservation. It has always collaborated with a network of professionals in what concerns prevention, education, and raising awareness of a responsible approach to the practice of activities in the environment, and today it extends its commitment by promoting a culture to awareness about the product, its origins, the company’s commitment to ethical, social and environmental responsibility, but also about all-round sustainability through its website, communication activities and the Protact Academy Lab, a section where you can find advice on how to live and reach the mountains in a sustainable way, but also how to make your equipment last longer so that you don’t put extra products in circulation.

Alongside this comes a concrete commitment to achieving complete climate neutrality by 2024. “For us, it is crucial that Ortovox’s customers, who by nature are strongly committed to the environment, feel that they are in good hands. They need to know that we are taking action and using all our strength to change the world, for the better,” explains Katrin Bauer, Head of CSR at Ortovox. “The Swisswool line and our dedicated freeride collection are great examples of our commitment. Indeed, both are climate neutral already since the fall/winter 2021/22 season. Since summer 2022 the climbing collection is also climate neutral, the same goes for our online shop, which has been climate neutral since April 2022. Of course continuing on this path, maintaining this pace, is a huge challenge. The requirements that must be met, and therefore the documentation that must be submitted, in order to qualify as climate neutral are becoming more and more restrictive. And that is what we had hoped for! This counteracts greenwashing by forcing companies to be truly green.”  

Achieving climate neutrality in just two years is a huge goal and is basically achieved through three, crucial, steps: CO2 elimination, reduction, and offsetting. To reduce emissions, Ortovox has tacked on a packaging reduction project: in one year, 25% CO2 was saved by optimizing material use and replacing plastic bags with 30% post-consumer waste and 70% pre-consumer waste. By doing so, Ortovox avoids placing 3.5 tons of new plastic on the market each year. As far as offsetting is concerned, on the other hand, the brand is focusing on the implementation of measures to optimize the supply chain: this is but the last, necessary step to arrive at enshrining total neutrality: in fact, only companies, production processes and products whose CO2 emissions are offset through internationally recognized environmental protection projects can be defined as climate neutral. To calculate the footprint produced each year and measure its approach to climate neutrality Ortovox relies on ClimatePartner, a German consulting firm that supports the brand both in the calculation and in the actions to be taken to get to the point of reducing its emissions. Emissions that, to date, cannot be circumvented are offset.

The commitment a brand puts into raising awareness of environmental protection and preservation issues certainly is important, but it is incomplete without the entire supply chain being reviewed. By joining the European Outdoor Group’s Supply Chain Decarbonisation Project (an association that includes retailers, national associations, and technology providers and supports them in areas such as market research, CSR and sustainability, events, and retail activities) in early 2021, Ortovox is committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while increasing the use of renewable energy within the supply chain. The initiative is joint and involves several leading brands in the industry by taking advantage of the fact that many outdoor companies share the same production facilities. This results in brands having strong decision-making power on how to manage the supply chain in an ethical, virtuous and green way.

Ortovox has also launched a film on protecting the natural heritage of the Alps, we mention it here