La Sportiva Launches Corporate Sustainability Website Portal

La Sportiva announces the launch of its Corporate Sustainability website portal (www.sportiva.com/sustainability), which outlines the company’s commitments to protecting the environment through its sustainable business practices, its care of factory workers and fair-labor practices, and its support of the local and national communities in which it does business.

“Our love of wild and beautiful places is what drives us to make the best, highest quality, technical footwear for mountain based sports,” said La Sportiva president Colin Lantz. “We are fully committed to building our product in a way that respects the environment, as well as the health, safety and dignity of the workers who make our product. Our new website portal creates an important element of transparency for our consumers and our fellow industry members to view what’s most important to our company and our brand.”

The company’s Corporate Sustainability platform is as follows:

• Passionately provide the best technical footwear for mountain sports
• Protect wild spaces and support environmental stewardship
• Reduce the impact of our business on the environment
• Create innovative and sustainable products
• Effect positive change in working conditions within our supply chain

The program overview contained on the new site covers three main areas: the environment; factory and supply chain workers, and the local and national communities in which La Sportiva does business.

“A main goal of our Corporate Sustainability program is education,” Lantz said. “We are passionate about providing leadership to our local community in Boulder, Colo., as well as to being an active contributing member to the industries and communities in which we do business nationally. We are committed to working with others to pursue social and economic goals.”

La Sportiva grew out of a family run business that built rugged work footwear for farmers and mountain guides living in the Italian Dolomite Mountains. Alpinism is still the heart of this global business, which makes footwear for climbing, trail running, hiking, backpacking, and mountaineering. La Sportiva is still mountain-based, independent, and a family run business.

“For all of us at La Sportiva, this love of the outdoors requires active participation in the fight to preserve the outdoor environment and the outdoor community’s access to these special places,” Lantz said. “We donate time, service and money to environmental and humanitarian causes and work to green our internal operations and improve working conditions and reduce our environmental footprint both up and down our supply chains.

The company headquarters in Boulder, Colo., is powered by clean, renewable wind power, and is a member of Eco-Cycle, making it a Zero-Waste community partner. What’s more, La Sportiva offers a Shoe Recycling Program for the majority of its product line.

The company has been a longstanding supporter of local and national environmental and conservation organizations. Its factories have ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification. Information on all of these programs can be found at www.sportiva.com/sustainability.

ABOUT LA SPORTIVA
Celebrating their 78th anniversary in 2006, La Sportiva brings a strong alpine mountaineering and climbing heritage to their line of performance footwear. This core experience enables La Sportiva to offer the most versatile technical climbing, mountaineering, Mountain Running and trail sport shoes on the market. What’s more, La Sportiva believes in the dedication and feedback of their amazing roster of athletes who are some of the strongest climbers, mountaineers, and mountain runners in the world. For more information on La Sportiva visit www.sportiva.com.