Petzl Receives Sprout Award from Rock and Ice Magazine

Petzl America, a leading manufacturer of quality hands-free lighting® and climbing gear, will be recognized this August with Rock & Ice magazine’s Sprout Award. In each issue, Rock and Ice honors companies who are supporting the environment, or making socially conscious efforts through products, manufacturing processes, or education.

Active in the support of philanthropic causes, Petzl assists more than 50 non-profit organizations through fiscal contributions to events, fundraisers, benefits, exhibitions and silent auctions. This year Petzl launched a co-branded line of carabiners with HERA, a foundation dedicated to raise funding and awareness for Ovarian Cancer through outreach including their signature CLIMB4Life events. From every HERABiner sale, one dollar will go directly to HERA.

Petzl also recently announced that Roc Trip 2007, their annual event for the international climbing community, will join forces with Rocktoberfest, an annual fundraising event held by the Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition to preserve climbing access in Eastern Kentucky. By combining the two events, Petzl aims to help increase
Rocktoberfest’s stature, attendance, and fundraising power, while protecting the Red River Gorge from impending oil driven development.

Other Sprout worthy endeavors include Petzl’s provision of headlamps to the Ecology Project International in Costa Rica for monitoring sea turtle nesting sites. The brand also recently became a member of the Conservation Alliance, which allocates membership fees to the protection of wild habitat areas where people also recreate. Petzl’s unyielding environmental practices are also seen internally, from operating by 100-percent wind power and under energy efficient light bulbs, to an office-wide recycling program and encouragement of employee carpooling.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by Rock and Ice in this way,” says John Evans, Petzl America’s Marketing Director and head of corporate giving. ”Social Responsibility is a key corporate value for Petzl; each and every employee is involved in giving back and minimizing our environmental footprint. It’s great to be part of a company, and in an industry, that is taking a leadership role on issues of conservation and sustainability.”

About Petzl
Petzl America is the U.S. division of Petzl, headquartered in France. For over 50 years, Petzl has been developing innovative tools and techniques used by those entering the vertical world. Today, the Petzl brand is closely associated with adventure, exploration, rescue, and many notable exploits in the worlds of rock climbing and alpinism. Petzl climbing hardware and headlamps can be found in outdoor specialty shops and premium sporting goods retailers around the world. For more information, log on to www.petzl.com.