At Karhu, we feel that the spirit of winter exploration and our admiration of wild snow should go beyond the sport we love and into the way we live. Climate data reports higher temperatures and erratic snowfall stemming from atmospheric changes – dramatic changes we as skiers see in the mountains around us – and we believe it’s time to actively raise awareness and identify solutions to the issue of climate change. Our exact contribution to the changing climate may not be settled yet, but we believe any action to reduce our contribution is a positive action. It’s a feeling that runs throughout our brand, with employees who regularly commute to work by bicycle, designers who view environment as a piece of the development process and athletes like Alison Gannett, a life-long environmentalist who recently completed training with Al Gore’s The Climate Project.
The products that we make for the enjoyment of winter are a long way from green, but we’ve begun a dialog on how to reduce their impact on our winter so that we might share it with generations to come. This year we introduce our new Greenlight™ Core – found in the BC 100, Jak BC, Bertha, Jil, Betty, XCD Guide, XCD 10th Mountain, XCD GT and XCD Pinnacle skis – a new wood core that improves
performance, cuts weight and helps reduce our footprint. Greenlight™ Cores comes in several forms, depending on the type of ski, but the bulk of the core is Paulownia, laminated with stringers of maple and bamboo. Native to China, Paulownia wood is locally sourced, cutting transportation needs and reducing the impact from global shipping. Valued for its reforestation abilities on marginal and contaminated soil, it grows extremely quickly, reaching maturity two- to four-times faster than equivalent hardwoods, making it easy to farm and harvest instead of logging old growth timber. But most of all, its fast growth and large leaf production give it a high carbon sequestration value, as it sucks in carbon dioxide, converts it into wood mass and releases oxygen back out.
The core is just one of many materials that make up a ski, and there is room for improvement in each and every one. We believe that the next generation of design should go further than just functionality, taking into account the footprint of its entire lifecycle, from production to disposal or reuse. We won’t get there overnight, but we are taking the first steps and reducing our impact. Winter is our business and our life, and we’d like to keep it that way.