Protect Our Winters Works With Outdoor Industry Businesses To Pen Open Letter To European Policy Makers

The European outdoor industry sits in a key position in the fight against climate change. Its customer base sees the impact of climate change first hand; from the shrinking glaciers and decreased snowpack to increased rockfall and extreme weather events.

The industry is fully dependent on a stable climate for its economic future, but also plays a role in climate breakdown through the emissions its operations cause, over 80% of which are produced outside Europe.

The more progressive sections of the outdoor industry have been taking steps to cut their impact, improve sustainability and do business differently, moving forward ahead of legislation. A group of these businesses have now worked with Protect Our Winters to formulate a list of demands, asking policy makers to catch up, to produce policies that support increased sustainability and penalise bad practices.

These demands will be presented in an open letter to European policy makers ahead of COP27 and Protect Our Winters is calling for all heads of the outdoor industry, that care about the planet, the outdoor places that the outdoor community relies on, and the economic future of their sector, to sign the letter and join this movement for a better future.

”We don’t have time to fall further behind. Every chance to speed up emission reduction must be taken. As part of the Outdoor industry who live by and for nature, as business leaders, we stand united with strength in numbers asking political leaders to radically ramp up ambition and back it with regulation.”
David Ekelund, co-founder/co-CEO Icebug.

“At Burton we’ve worked hard to model a sustainable business of the future, but individual action is not enough to address the global threat of climate change. We urgently need bold legislation to shake up business as usual. The Outdoor Industry must unite to preserve natural spaces that sustain our businesses and life itself. We can wait no more. Please join our collective call for climate action at COP 27.” Ali Kenney, Chief Strategy Officer, Burton Snowboards.

“The climate crisis calls for leadership; the outdoor industry, with its deep-rooted connection to nature, must be that leader for the wider commercial sector.” Joe Murray, CEO Internet Fusion Ltd.

“We, as the outdoor industry, not only need to address the climate emergency, we want to. We want to be a leader in this space and to do that, we demand legislation that rewards us to be a force for good.”
Julien Durant, co-founder,