“We are deliberately taking the more difficult path, in order to generate the kind of leverage that lasts.” This is the message from Head of Material Christine Brein in the newly published Planet Report 2023 from German mountain apparel and hardgoods manufacturer, ORTOVOX. They announced that the brand would move away from recycled polyester derived from plastic bottles and replace it with recycled textiles instead beginning in 2024. As part of its annual sustainability report, ORTOVOX also confirms that it has achieved carbon neutrality, sets new goals for further emissions reductions, and expands its wool growers’ trade group.
Courtesy of ORTOVOX
“Protecting what we love” is the motto for the ORTOVOX vsustainability strategy. Since 1980, the company has been protecting not only mountaineers, but the mountains, too. ORTOVOX uses its People Report each year to share the company’s commitment to better working conditions along the entire supply chain. The newly published Planet Report 2023 is also released annually and summarizes the environmental and climate protection measures taken by the company, providing transparency through insights into strategy, goals that have been reached, and future challenges.
“With the Planet Report 2023, we are providing a comprehensive overview of our various sustainability activities, including the challenges that we confront on a daily basis,” says Lisa Pfeiffer, corporate social responsibility manager at ORTOVOX. “We don’t want to hide behind labels and stickers, and instead are much more concerned with showing anyone who is interested just how complex and multifaceted the topic of sustainability is—and how exciting!”
Bottles Remain Bottles, Clothes Remain Clothes
ORTOVOX will no longer pursue its planned transition to recycled polyester (PET) due to some surprising insights gained into PET recycling. The company believes that this type of recycling is inherently flawed, as it creates imbalances in the apparel and container systems and disincentives the development of the clothing industry’s own strategies for circularity. The future focus at ORTOVOX will instead be on using alternative raw materials and recycled materials derived from the textile recycling loop. The aim is to gradually develop textile-to-textile recycling to create more balanced lifecycles.
“We are already actively involved in a number of working groups and projects that deal with textile-to-textile recycling in an intensive, progressive way and are making significant advances in this new field,” says Brien. “We will also be increasingly turning our attention to raw materials from renewable, bio-based sources. We are aware that from the outside looking in, the decision to move away from PET recycling will initially be met with surprise or even disapproval. Nevertheless, we want to take responsibility and be pioneers, reusing the products that we and the apparel industry put into circulation ourselves.”
Reducing Carbon Emissions Takes Priority
As of Summer 2023, ORTOVOX is 100-percent climate neutral, meaning the company offsets its remaining emissions with recognized climate projects. But it doesn’t end there. ORTOVOX’s goal is to reduce its remaining carbon emissions by 42 percent by 2030. In total, ORTOVOX’s current emissions across all locations and steps in its value-added chain total 20,946.96 tons of CO2, an amount equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of 1,309 average American citizens. The objective now is to establish carbon reduction goals and take measures to achieve them. The latest findings in climate science and the compatibility of the goals and measures with the Paris Agreement play a central role here.
New Farms in the ORTOVOX Wool Promise Group
The demand for wool is increasing, but the standards for quality and animal welfare remain just as high. With this philosophy in mind, six Tasmanian farms have been added to the ORTOVOX Wool Promise (OWP) group. This philosophy is characterized by a common understanding of animal welfare. The protection and conservation of the animals’ habitat are the number one priority for both the farms and ORTOVOX. Personal cooperation with the farms gives ORTOVOX’s partners long-term planning security. The OWP group also holds annual round tables that bring various parties together and provide a platform for exchange and discussion of the benefits of the 175,000 sheep in the network.
Stronger Together
What ways are there to increase sustainability? To answer this question, ORTOVOX’s observations were expanded to include an external dimension of 188 end customers, dealers, suppliers, journalists, and partner organizations. The results and insights inform the ongoing development of the ProtACT 2030 sustainability strategy as part of ORTOVOX’s multi-stakeholder approach and are anchored in the overarching company goals.
The complete ORTOVOX Planet Report 2023 can be accessed at HERE.
About ORTOVOX: ORTOVOX is a four-season mountain brand headquartered in Germany known as an expert in avalanche rescue equipment and wool apparel designed specifically for ski touring, freeriding, mountaineering, alpine climbing and alpine touring. Since its founding in 1980, ORTOVOX has stood for a sophisticated approach to protection and comfort in the mountains, characterized by the responsible treatment of people and nature. As pioneers in avalanche rescue, ORTOVOX has played a key role in the development of emergency equipment and targeted training measures for mountain sports, with protection as the brand’s most important value. This protective ethos extends to include safe and fair working conditions for its employees, setting the highest standards of animal welfare on the brand’s Tasmanian merino farms and ensuring environmentally friendly manufacturing of its products. www.ortovox.com
