Equipment for mountaineers is often not produced sustainably. Actually amazing, because in principle mountaineers are definitely interested in sustainability and ecology.
A guest post by Tim Marklowski - Mountain Wilderness
When it comes to mountaineering clothing, sustainability has long since arrived. There are enough labels. From animal welfare to working conditions to ecology - the customer wants to know what he has. What started with the T-shirt is now also an issue in the hardshell jacket. "Green" should be the technical clothing, free of toxic polyfluorocarbons (PFC) and manufactured under fair working conditions. Such product features are declared by more or less transparent labels such as Bluesign or Fair Wear Foundation to pick out two of the more established certificates from the label flood.
Fair production almost only in clothing
While the clothes are getting greener and greener, little is happening with the rest of the mountaineering equipment: carabiners, skis, helmet, ice ax, clamping devices. Production there is associated with all sorts of damage to people and the environment. The utensils are made from raw materials that cannot be regrowed and are difficult to obtain. The materials used are mainly aluminum and steel, other alloys and plastic. And not everything that shines is sustainable - the opposite is not uncommon. For example, aluminum, which is essential for carabiners, is extracted from bauxite. This is a rock made of aluminum and iron ores that occurs frequently in the earth's crust.
Removal in the tropics
The majority of the mining takes place in tropical regions, where bauxite occurs in relatively thin horizontal layers, superimposed by a few meters of soil. First of all, rainforest has to be cleared for extraction, and then the soil must be torn open - in some cases in sensitive natural areas. Up to four tons of bauxite are needed to produce two tons of alumina and ultimately one ton of aluminum. And the power consumption is enormous. The residual bauxite, which remains after the alumina extraction, migrates as toxic red mud in huge terrain pools.
When millions of cubic meters of heavy metal sludge leaks out
What happens when the dams of such a red mud pool break, was 2010 in the Hungarian Kolontár: About one million cubic meters of caustic and heavy metal-containing mud emerged and contaminated much of the surrounding area. 400 people from the surrounding communities had to be evacuated, ten people were killed, 150 were injured and sometimes admitted to hospitals with severe acid burns.
In Barcarena, northeastern Brazil, the population suffers from the largest aluminum refinery in the world. In dry weather, the wind spreads the aluminum dust over long distances and into the surrounding watercourses. The consequences are serious, according to a study published by 2016 on behalf of the German Federal Environment Agency. Affected are all those who depend on the rivers and use the water for fishing, drinking, cooking and personal hygiene.
Demand only partially available
No question: such conditions are contrary to the general environmental and ethical understanding of mountaineers. But who ever asked for a carabiner made of sustainable aluminum? Or after recycled clamping wedges? A ski, guaranteed without tropical wood core and made with bio resin?
Demand for hard goods is virtually non-existent. This is demonstrated by a master's thesis at the University of Bern, in which 300 consumers, 100 sales persons, industry experts and representatives of well-known mountain sports companies were interviewed: sustainability is indeed one of the values of today's mountaineer, but not everywhere to the same extent. As many as 78 percent of respondents said they paid attention to sustainability standards when it comes to apparel, but for hardwear that only applied to 7 percent. This coincides with the experience of specialist retailers: the need is scarce.
Winding paths in the world market
While one is now lost in the textiles in the label jungle, it remains with carabiner and Co. "clear". In fact, there is not a single label that would tell the consumer something about the sustainability of the product. This is not because of the secrecy of the hardware brands. They simply do not even know where their raw materials come from, since they are "globally traded commodities", ie goods that are traded on the world market.
It does not go further than the supplier, ie a step back in the value chain. Can not be gone: Many companies complain that there is simply no way of tracing, as is the case with textiles. Even if the will was there. The resource consumption of mountaineering equipment compared to that of the car or construction industry seems too marginal to shed some light here. And the public eye remains only on textiles and at best on shoes.
A kid makes it happen
However, the influence of the mountaineering industry on suppliers could be more than wishful thinking, as has already been seen in the past: the down-to-earth standards used in sleeping bags and insulation jackets are a success story. According to studies by the European Outdoor Group (EOG), the mountain sports industry accounts for less than one percent of total global downy cake. The down jackets and sleeping bags of a handful of mountain freaks are virtually negligible compared to the bedding industry. Nevertheless, the outdoor industry has managed to introduce now common standards.
Live plucking and forced feeding were banned from production
"You never want to change that business!", It had said. And a little later, the Marktsprinzling Bergsport brought the most serious and strict standards of the industry on the market. As a result, some companies from the bed industry promptly moved in. The question of ethical animal husbandry came to the table, at least live plucking and forced feeding of the animals were banished from the down production by a majority. The influence of the lobby for better down was thus growing rapidly - starting from the powerless mountain sports sector. A signal effect that no one knew.
First round table
In conversation with mountain sports companies, it becomes clear that there is a fundamental interest in creating more clarity and taking on responsibility for other resources such as aluminum. The unscrupulous money-shark is rather not to be found. That the mountain sports industry plays a small role in the global aluminum or steel market and thus carries a marginal "blame" for any abuses, there is nothing to oppose. But catching up is there. According to the International Aluminum Institute (IAI), the recycling rate of aluminum cans worldwide is around 70 percent, and in the construction and transport industry even at 90 percent. In contrast, carabiners and pimples do not appear in any recycling statistics. Not yet.
Meanwhile, in most of the larger mountain sports shops, one can hand over his old equipment instead of throwing it away. However, the goods are not directly recycled in the sense that a new carabiner would be used to make a new one. Too big are the concerns about the quality, even if there were no tests yet. But it may be a matter of time before the customer asks in a fair organic cotton shirt where his ice pick comes from. And by the demand of relevant NGOs, the industry of the topic takes on the first time. For the first time 2017 had a meeting on the subject entitled "Outdoor Equipment Sustainability Roundtable" at the Outdoormesse Friedrichshafen in June. At the table were representatives of the European Outdoor Group, the Scandinavian Outdoor Group as well as well-known mountain sports brands and the NGO Mountain Wilderness.
In many directions was thought: Could you, for example, cooperate with other industries that use the same materials, for example, from cycling, and thus increase the leverage? Or are there sustainability initiatives from larger industries that you could join? In the course of the meeting, working groups were formed, which will meet again at the International Trade Fair for Sporting Goods and Sportswear (Ispo) in Munich. Then previous results are exchanged - to build on the success of the down.
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Credits: picture and text Tim Marklowski - Mountain Wilderness