Brussels, Thursday 27 January 2022
With climate change and future winter sports challenges in focus, the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI), has just launched the “FESI Winter Sport Sustainability Network” (FESI-WSN), a joint initiative that aims to increase the knowledge and cooperation on sustainability and circularity within the winter sports Industry.
The FESI-WSN is about knowledge sharing and working together on the sustainability challenges the industry faces. The network format is built around 4 annual meetings with ‘round table’ discussions, in combination with input from invited industry experts to increase the knowledge within the group. In addition to the meetings, projects will be defined where the members will have the opportunity to team up around activities that are high on their agenda. Actions for collaboration can range from circularity and end-of-life initiatives to common environmental footprinting tools.
“The winter sports industry is currently facing many challenges linked to climate change. To remain competitive and make a positive contribution to the warming threat, the industry must respond in a unified and coordinated way, whether it be to reduce its carbon footprint or to meet the growing environmental consumers’ expectations”, commented Jérôme Pero, FESI General Secretary. “By working together through our new Winter Sports Sustainability Network, we can now move faster towards a more sustainable winter sport industry”, he added.
“Sustainability isn’t about competing; it’s about working and innovating together to faster find new solutions to our common challenges. Therefore, we see the collaboration with other industry players through FESI WSN as an added value to build a more responsible and resilient winter sports industry that can meet the challenges of tomorrow”, commented René Harrer – Sales and Marketing Director at HEAD Ski and Head of FESI Winter Sports Task Force.
The FESI-WSN is an initiative led by FESI and founding members:
***
Contact: Ariane Gatti, FESI Communication Manager / [email protected] / +32 274 08 94
About FESI: Founded in 1960 FESI – the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry represents the interests of approximately 1.800 sporting goods manufacturers (85% of the European market) through its National Sporting Goods Industry Federations and its directly affiliated member companies. 70-75% of FESI’s membership is made up of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. In total, the European Sporting Goods Industry employs over 700.000 EU citizens and has an annual turnover of some 81 billion euro.
Contact: Ariane Gatti, FESI Senior Communication & Policy Manager / [email protected] / +32 274 08 94
