On Earth Day, 22nd April 2023, our Global Head of Supply Chain & ESG Sara Asmoarp hosted a Q&A session on our Instagram Story to answer questions from our Collective about all things sustainability at Faction and the challenges facing the ski industry. Read on for the full scoop.
WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUSES AT FACTION?
Sara: From a product perspective, we’re focussing a lot on durability to ensure that our skis are kept in use longer, reducing the environmental impact of the products. We’re also focussing a lot on our Collective and our media. We aim to inspire all our fans to enjoy and take care of the mountains.
DO YOU HAVE A RECYCLE OR REUSE SCHEME FOR OLD AND BROKEN SKIS?
Sara: We’re looking into different recycling and take back schemes. Skis are made by gluing together a combination of materials such as plastic, rubber, wood, and metal. The biggest challenge for recycling is to separate the materials in an efficient way.
WHAT DO YOU ENCOURAGE CUSTOMERS TO DO TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE?
Sara: Take care of your skis to ensure they last longer, wax them, store them properly, and if they break, repair them. Use your voice and support actions for positive climate policy changes.
HOW DO YOU HANDLE STOCKS OF OLDER MODELS TO AVOID THEM GOING DIRECTLY TO TRASH?
Sara: The most important thing is to ensure that we produce the right amount of stock from the start. We work closely across all functions; sales, product & supply chain, to have as accurate forecasts as possible. Where we do have spare skis at the end of a season, we donate them to great NGOs such as Coombs Outdoors and Protect Our Winters [Switzerland] to ensure they can be put to good use.
HOW MUCH VALUE DOES FACTION PLACE ON SUSTAINABILITY?
Sara: All our decisions consider our environmental impact. From product development, where we focus on durability, to how we work with our athletes and media production. We’re calculating our emissions from both products and our operations to find areas where we can make reductions.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MAKE YOUR PRODUCTS MORE SUSTAINABLE?
Sara: Our first and most important step is to focus on quality. Quality is sustainability. We reduce the footprint of our products by producing skis in factories using renewable energy. Going forward, we’ll be looking at our supply chain and focusing on renewable for raw material providers as well.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO REDUCE THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF THE COMPANY?
Sara: I’m working closely with all functions to optimize our operations. Building products with a purpose, ensuring that production and logistics is optimized, and educating and engaging our team to make the best environmental decisions for their area of work.
THANK YOU FOR ALL THE GREAT QUESTIONS, WE’LL LEAVE YOU WITH SOME CLOSING WORDS FROM SARA:
“The journey doesn’t stop here, and we will continue to work as a team towards a more sustainable future. We view business as a vehicle to build community, not just profits, and we are so grateful to you for putting your trust in us.”
