For a class I am taking at Western State College of Colorado I was require to create a "State of Affairs" on an industry of my choice. I chose ski manufacturing since it is something that I am interested in pursuing after college. This is by no means all the information on the subject and I am sure some of you will tear this apart but this is what I came up with, but could have easily said more but our length requirement was very specific, so I tried to put the information I felt was most important to the subject at hand. Feel free to add anything i missed or you feel is pertinent to the issue.


Ski Manufacturers and Sustainability

As we move deeper into the 21st century, sustainability is a word we are beginning to hear much more frequently. Sustainability is defined as the capability to endure while taking into account environmental, social, and economic impacts. I doubt for many people reading this article that sustainability comes to mind at all when you purchase new gear. This is most likely because there are simply not that many options for an environmentally friendly product in the ski industry. And the fact is that most of our gear that we rely on is petroleum or chemically based substances. This is not really due to any fault of our own because up until recently these were the only materials that were easily available and durable enough to withstand the forces generated and impacts taken during a normal day of skiing. As technology increases and different materials become more available, the industry is presented with the opportunity to change the way we make things, to not only make the it safer for those manufacturing the skis but also to reduce the impact we have on the natural environment that we all value as skiers.
So what is unsustainable about ski manufacturing? Bases, sidewalls, and top sheets are all made from petroleum based plastic compounds such as p-tex and ABS. Most cores are made from unsustainable and slow growing woods and mixed with fiberglass layers. Fiberglass is a glass reinforced plastic, so again petroleum based. A plastic top sheet is then layered over the ski and bonded with a epoxy or resin both of which are volatile organic compounds and can be harmful to health when inhaled. So what we end up with is a product that is almost completely reliant on petroleum-based products. The main issue is the petroleum we need to use when making a ski. Petroleum is a non-renewable resource and is also not good for the environment due to the emissions created during manufacturing processes that are required to create plastics, resins, and epoxies. Also as we see the prices of oil increase, as supplies decrease, this can only mean that the prices of skis will increase, as most skis are very dependent on petroleum in the manufacturing process. Petroleum also comes into play when we look at how we get our skis. Only a handful of companies build their skis in America or Canada. The rest, and by far the majority, are manufactured in either Europe or China. This means in order for the products to reach us in America they need to be shipped across an ocean and most likely to a distributing plant in America, and then off to their final destination. This also means that with increasing oil prices we will see an increase in the price of skis. Without question both the manufacturing and transportation create a huge carbon footprint, and a large amount of waste that without question could be reduced.
When looking at many of the major companies such as Line, K2, Atomic, and Salomon the only one that mentions anything about the environment on their website is Salomon. They have a short environmental page stating that they are trying to recognize their impacts, reduce dependence on non-renewable resources, and cut their carbon emissions. However the only product I could find on their site that had anything even resembling eco-friendliness was the Shogun ski. This ski has a bamboo layer over the wood core (they don’t mention what kind of wood) and part of the proceeds from the ski are donated to Mark Abma’s foundation called 1 Step which promotes sustainability in the ski industry. This is a great step but the 1 Step website has not been updated in over a year, and this is the first I have heard about proceeds from the ski being donated. It would be interesting to see what is happening with Abma and his foundation. With the other companies though, after a search of their websites and a little research I could not find anything they were doing to reduce their environmental impact or promote a more environmentally conscious way of business. This is disappointing because out of all ski manufactures these companies have the funding and resources to research and push new technologies and manufacturing methods without the risk of going bankrupt. It would be awesome to see these companies start to take a more conscious stance on production methods as they could really change and set the standard for the snow sports industry and possibly the outdoor industry as a whole.
There are companies, though, that are a starting to adopt higher environmental standards and ultimately leading the way in terms of conscious manufacturing. Mervin Manufacturing is the most notable and probably well known of these companies. Under the Mervin umbrella is Lib-Tech and Gnu both snowboard companies, but Lib-tech has started to manufacture skis or Narrow Ass Snowboards (NAS). Lib-Tech recently created a technology, which they are marketing as Horsepower construction. This means they have 100% Columbian gold timber, which I could not find exactly what they are advertising with this term, but on another page on their website they mentioned that the timber used for cores is fast growing so it can regenerate quickly causing less of an impact to the environment, than if you cut down a similar slow growing tree that takes many years to regenerate. Horsepower construction also includes the use of basalt fibers instead of fiberglass, which means it does not have to be synthetically created and is much easier on the environment. This does increase the price of the ski however. Mervin also uses a bio-resin made from beans for their top sheets, again eliminating the need for plastic. They use a soy-based elastomer for their sidewalls instead of ABS plastic as well. Besides all of this, they are also made in the U.S.A., which greatly reduces the carbon footprint of their products as well. While there is still room for improvement, Mervin is pushing environmental consciousness and leading a trend that will catch on in the industry as a whole in the coming years as environmental concerns become greater. Another company worth mentioning is Grown eco freeride skis. They are the leaders in sustainable ski design, winning the Volvo Sports Design award in 2008 for their eco friendly models. In their design they have eliminated the need for plastic topsheets and sidewalls by replacing them with wood grown in sustainably managed forest in Europe and using basalt and carbon fibers in place of fiberglass. They also use recycled bases, which is a step in the right direction. Even by their own admittance they are not perfect though and are still trying to lower their eco-footprint even further. They are also trying to make their skis more recyclable. Recyclability is one major factor that the industry is missing. If their was a process to recycle parts of skis the industry could greatly reduce its environmental impact by lowering the amount of new materials that needed to be made from scratch each year.
Clearly the ski industry has a long way to go before we can be considered environmentally friendly but at least we have some people who are taking steps towards this goal. We are a group of people who value nature more than the average person so it should be our mission to reduce the impact our sport has on the environment. This article is by no means meant to provide you with all the information on this subject, as there is much more to learn regarding sustainability in the ski industry. This article is meant to make you think and present you with new ideas that may help you form new opinions on how you should support the current ski industry and where your money might be best used the next time you decide you need new gear. I encourage you to do your own research on this subject and form your own opinions based on your findings. I hope that you will feel similarly to the way I feel, because if the industry begins to realize the demand for these products we can create a positive change in the sport we love which will ultimately benefit the environment as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Here are some links to businesses that have already taken steps to reduce their impact and foundations with information regarding sustainability and environmentalism in the ski industry:


• Purl Wax http://www.purlracing.com/index.php
• Liberty Skis: uses bamboo cores http://www.libertyskis.com/
• Gown Eco Freeride Skis http://www.grownskis.com/
• Lib-tech http://www.lib-tech.com/
• Praxis Skis: locally manufactured http://praxisskis.com/
• On3p: locally manufactured and sustainable bamboo cores http://on3pskis.com/
• Wagner Customs: Locally manufactured in a wind and solar powered factory http://www.wagnerskis.com/
• http://protectourwinters.org/
• http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/en/
• http://www.aspeninstitute.org/
• http://www.1stepnow.com/
• http://www.saveoursnowfoundation.org/
• http://business.transworld.net/34286...kiing-company/