The 750 colleagues who work in the Altenmarkt site and the further 1200 members of the Atomic and Amer families who are based at our Bulgarian and Romanian sites are some of the finest ski, ski boot and binding craftspeople in the world. We’ve been investing in our ski-manufacturing capabilities in the Pongau valley for over 66 years and the knowledge we’ve built up over that time isn’t easily transferred. How do you manage to keep production in Altenmarkt im Pongau, Austria, Romania & Bulgaria when many companies have moved to manufacturing elsewhere? Is Atomic seeking to join any corporations to improve sustainability?Ītomic has recently become a signatory of Protect our Winters and once we’ve published our roadmap we will look to partner with a range of organisations to build responsible leadership in the Winter sports hard goods industry. We will use science-based targets to track the impact we have at product and brand level and take design decisions to reduce the impact of future products. Some steps can be taken quickly, such as the amount of fibreglass used in a ski but other things, like switching to a bio-based epoxy alternative, will take several years to industrialise. Using these LCAs we are now able to clearly understand how to reduce this impact at both site and product level. We have conducted Life Cycle analyses for key products that give us a clear understanding of the most impactful parts of both individual products and the manufacturing process. Is Atomic looking at how these could change in the future to create skis with less impact on the planet? Ski construction requires many materials with unique properties like Ptex, carbon fibre, metals, resins and wood. It is an obvious paradox that, as a business, we are reliant on something that’s hugely impacted by the climate crisis and it’s essential that we lead the Winter Sports industry in this area. This work will culminate in a sustainability roadmap for Atomic that will outline the steps we’re going to take in the coming years to reduce the impact of our business. With this in mind, we kicked off a project 18 months ago with the specific aim of understanding how we can measure the environmental impact of all aspects of the Atomic business to inform the steps we need to take to reduce that impact, we’ve looked at all aspects of the manufacturing process from the raw material sourcing to life-cycle analysis (LCA) of individual products. Whilst notable, we recognize that these, and other, isolated actions do not ladder up into a clear roadmap for the future of our business. The hot-water generated by the ski presses is recirculated to heat the site which reduces overall energy expenditure. This reduced the amount of oil required across the site by 1 million litres a year and had a significant impact on the CO2 generated by the ski manufacturing process. 15 years ago, the Altenmarkt site switched from an oil-based energy source to wood-chip. Historically, there have been a number of key initiatives that have significantly contributed to reducing the impact of the Atomic business. Our tour of Austria is based around being as eco as possible whilst enjoying the Austrian Alps, how is Atomic addressing their environmental impact? As part of this visit we manage to interview James Fairbank, the Global Marketing Director of Atomic. The Bespoke Black Book Winter team went on a road trip across Austria to visit some of their best ski resorts however the first stop was Altenmarkt where the world famous ski company Atomic resides.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |