We’re not just a manufacturer of climbing equipment. EDELRID appeals to ardent climber, boulderers, hikers, rope access workers, arborists, paragliders, and skiers who love the vertical world.
The same goes for us. As a company, we know our business has an impact on the planet and realise it’s our duty to minimise that.
In 2010, we launched an environmental management system for our management and production facilities with EMAS (Eco Management and Audit Scheme) and ISO 14001 certification at our Isny site. Compliance has been verified by an independent environmental auditor once a year since.
EMAS was developed by the European Union and is based on the globally accepted ISO 14001 standard for environmental management systems. An environmental management system allows a business to measure and control its impact on the planet.
At EDELRID, this allows us to clearly define responsibilities in the company, as well as collect, analyse and assess key data on our environmentally relevant consumption of resources. On this basis, we set ourselves targets and devise steps to ensure continual improvement. We publish these results in the annual EDELRID environmental report, which we share with the public on our website.
Every year, the environmental auditor scrutinises our data, the suitability of the goals set, as well as compliance with relevant environmental regulations. If we pass, the independent auditor officially certifies that our environmental management system is working.
Life cycle assessments estimate the environmental impact a particular product has. To do so, the whole life cycle of a product is measured and assessed, starting with obtaining the raw materials to production and use all the way to its disposal.
A life cycle assessment quantifies a product’s eco footprint. There are many ways a product affects the planet. Most life cycle assessments (as is the case at EDELRID) look at CO2 emissions.
To meet our responsibility, we want to reduce our carbon footprint wherever possible. However, to minimise our impact and find alternatives, it’s vital that we understand where, why and in what quantities we cause pollution. Recycling sounds great, but what difference does it make? Shipping from eastern Europe to Germany always sounds worse that within Germany itself, but to what extent?
A braiding machine operates around the clock, which sounds bad for the environment, but to what degree? At EDELRID we want all the facts and figures.
We want to share our expertise with our customers, community, and anyone else who’s interested. Anyone who wishes to, should be given the chance to discover the impact they have and make decisions accordingly. And this information might also inspire those who haven’t considered their footprint to think about what they buy and the impact on the environment.
To date, we’ve only completed a life cycle assessment for our dynamic ropes. However, we already have more in the pipeline for other product groups and hope to give you the results soon.
For detailed information about the life cycle assessments for the EDELRID dynamic rope collection and the results, take a look at the in-depth analyses here.
LIMITED COMPARABILITY: Comparing life cycle assessments between product groups and companies is hard. To allow organisations to specify different criteria for measuring an environmental impact, the ISO standards allow scope for interpretations and methods. Therefore, cautious comparisons are only possible for transparent assessments where the criteria are similar. Our life cycle assessment was based on the relevant ISO standards and conducted in-house at EDELRID but has not yet been verified by external auditors. The assessments shown here only evaluate the CO2 equivalents for EDELRID products and the EDELRID supply chain. Please also note that CO2 is just one of many types of pollution.
