Amer Sports claims it has reduced the carbon footprint of its ski factory in Altenmarkt, in the Austrian state of Salzburg. The facility produces around 400,000 pairs of skis per year for Salomon and Atomic, and employs more than 750 people. According to the company, the factory has reduced its annual CO2 emissions by 10 million kilograms. This has been made possible through a series of actions. The heating energy for the factory comes 100 percent from biomass. Recycling is also a major issue, especially for a ski factory, which uses a variety of raw materials like aluminium, steel, wood, plastics, glass, fiber and carbon. The factory extensively puts separates waste and utilizes a waste material shredder that crushes many waste materials into small particles, easier to pack and transport for recycling. For its commitment to recycling, in 2014 Amer Sports´s Winter Sports Operations received the Austrian Phönix waste management award. The type of insulation used for buildings and infrastructure combined with new heat recovery systems have also helped reduce the thermal energy needed for heating the facility by around 50 percent, from 10.2 Gigawatt Hour (GWh) in 2010 to the current 5.2 GWh per year, the company said.

Topics