Grown Skis: a sustainable business walking their talk

Grown Skis

Munich, Germany
http://www.grownskis.com

Products: high tech eco freeride skis - light, durable, aesthetic, eco and beautiful.

 

As a mountain and snow and ski lover I wondered, is there really a company out there that is changing the face of a distinctly environmentally unfriendly, unsustainable outdoor sport? I found one that is head and shoulders above the rest. This is what the team at Grown have to say about their company:

Grown is a young innovative eco-entrepreneurial company that was founded in 2007. Visions are at the beginning of change - the necessary change of our current way to do business which exceeds the biocapacity of our planet by far. Visions need to be put into practice though in order to foster change, and we are developing our vision of more sustainable production and consumption. We use our business to inspire and implement solutions to interrelated ecological and social concerns.

We develop and design products of premium quality that are high tech and eco – high performing products on the cutting edge of technology that cause no unnessecary harm to the environment with the lowest possible ecological footprint. We currently offer allmountain freeride skis – eco-rrect skis and other models.

Grown is pioneering alternative materials and concepts in the ski industry. It has been the first ski company introducing an eco-efficient ski at the most important international sports industry fair, the ISPO in Munich, Germany.
 

In 2008 our efforts were awarded with the ISPO Volvo sports design award ECODESIGN. This event triggered the ski industry to develop their own sustainability efforts. We offer the most eco-efficient skis on the market, emitting at least 40% less CO2eq emissions than skis of comparable high quality produced in Europe. The skis are the first on the market to be climate offset or climate neutral, as is our company.

As the leader in sustainable ski design, we are proud that major ski companies took our design ideas and our results as a benchmark for their further development in this direction. Unfortunately, many of our competitors remain in greenwashing their conventional business with a single 'eco' ski.
Still, sustainability is a process, and the path to walk is a long and difficult one of entrepreneurial risks and investments. We admit that our business and our products are far from being perfectly sustainable as any kind of production and consumption has negative impacts on the environment. 

We strive to constantly improve our practices and believe that one should not leave the good for the better. If you want to be dedicated to growing a sustainable business, you must build up a community of like-minded people who contribute with their creative ideas and experiences to an open innovation process. So our Alpine or Telemark ski were just the first products - other ideas will follow.