Environmental and Nature Protection

Sustainable actions have been the talk everywhere for a few years. But what precisely does that mean? It means that a responsible company puts high value on the “how” of doing things. As an outdoor sports brand, LOWA lives with and from nature and the outdoors. That is why the company carefully handles its resources and contributes its part to envir­on­mental protection.

Every company has in one way or another an effect on the envir­onment. In order for LOWA to know precisely what that is exactly, means it had to be system­at­ically logged and researched. That holds true, both for direct effects that come from business oper­ations, and for indirect factors that are produced outside facilities. Among direct envir­on­mental effects from LOWA are, for example, energy and water use, waste accu­mu­lation, and hazardous air emissions. Indirect envir­on­mental factors include, among others, materials usage, processing and use of products from the outdoors.

  • LOWA Jetzendorf Drohnenaufnahmen

Photo­voltaic systems

The requirement and conser­vation of energy are major issues in this day and age. Increasing energy effi­ciency and boosting the use of renewable energy are explicit goals at LOWA. Since 2015, a large section of company car parks are covered by a photo­voltaic system and since 2018, this also applies to the roofs of Halls 1 and 2 – buildings that include warehouse and production facilities. Thus, we can cover around 25 per cent of our annual power needs with solar-power that has been produced on site. We use 100 per cent green, hydro­electric power to satisfy the remaining demand.

  • 25 per cent of electricity needs in Jetzendorf come from photovoltaic systems

    25 per cent of elec­tricity needs in Jetzendorf come from photo­voltaic systems

Company Buses

LOWA provides company buses at all of its locations or finances bus lines that bring employees to work and back home. In Jetzendorf, seven small buses replace more than 50 indi­vidual vehicles by trans­porting employees to and from work, thus repres­enting an important daily contri­bution to climate protection. In addition, the Jetzendorf and Priel locations have installed charging stations that can be used by visitors during the day.

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Recycled paper for internal paper use

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Anyone who works in an office everyday knows a printout is not always necessary to work effi­ciently. LOWA too attempts to reduce its paper consumption as much as possible. Of course, it is still not quite possible to work completely paperless. For this reason, the company uses recycled paper for needed printouts. The paper has been certified with the “Blue Angel, ” an eco label in Germany, and is manu­factured 100 per cent from waste paper.

  • LOWA Aufforstung
  • LOWA Aufforstung

Protection of nature

Protecting the envir­onment and conserving resources are one thing. Active support of nature-protecting projects is another. Since 2001, LOWA employees have been part of a refor­estation project run by the Bavarian State Forest Enterprise and therefore regularly plant saplings in the mountain forests and slopes of Bavaria. This is designed to maintain a healthy mixed forest, one of our most valuable ecosystems. The costs of the seedlings, travel, accom­mod­ations and meals are covered by LOWA.

This refor­estation work is part of the 2 Million Tree Project of the European Outdoor Conser­vation Asso­ciation – a non-profit organ­isation made up of companies in the European outdoor industry whose membership dues flow entirely into nature-protection projects around the world. This work is designed to underscore the outdoor industry’s awareness of its respons­ibility to preserve nature.

  • LOWA plants approximately 500 trees annually

    LOWA plants approx­imately 500 trees annually

EOCA membership

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As a member of the organ­isation, LOWA supports EOCA’s global nature-preser­vation projects.

EOCA’s vision is that the European outdoor sector will make a signi­ficant contri­bution to the preser­vation of wild territories and ecosystems for future gener­ations.

Valuable nature-preser­vation projects are supported through funding from the European outdoor sector. The non-profit organ­isation directly finances these nature-preser­vation projects, and wants to show that the European outdoor industry is aware of its respons­ibility of preserving nature.

Nature-preser­vation committees appointed by organ­isation members can request grants as high as 30,000 Euros for a given project – a substantial contri­bution when it comes to nature-preser­vation projects. Examples of projects that have been chosen include the creation of an envir­on­mental route in Nepal, a waste-disposal project for a mountain peak in Kyrgyzstan, the protection of brown bears in northern Spain, the replanting of an indi­genous old-growth forest in the Czech Republic, the creation of a cross-border hiking trail in Macedonia and Albania, the protection of peat bogs in Ireland and the prevention of the defor­estation of an ancient forest in Sweden.

One hundred per cent of the membership fees flow directly into the projects, which are nominated and then selected by the members them­selves.

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Lowingo

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LOWA supports the conser­vation organ­ization “World Wide Fund for Nature” (WWF) in its projects protecting endangered specials with the sales of the soft toy LOWINGO. Nature conservancy, the protection of the living envir­onment, and the preser­vation of wildlife species and wild plants are the core projects of the conservancy organ­ization that is one of the largest in the world. The WWF has been involved in conservancy for more than 50 years and today is active in more than 100 countries. All total, this conser­vation organ­ization currently is running 1,300 projects for the protection of biod­iversity. The goal of the WWF is to halt the global destruction of nature and envir­onment and to create a future where people and nature can live harmo­niously together.

LO & WA adventure booklet

To convey a sense of fun and enjoyment of nature to parents and children, LOWA publishes the “Adventure Handbook” with the chil­dren’s mascot LO & WO. This biannual magazine is listed in the German National Library and has enjoyed great popularity amongst younger readers. Each issue includes a great story for children and adults alike, lots of reading material and tips and tricks related to arts, crafts and cooking. Children playfully get to know animals, plants and the envir­onment itself.

The peregrine falcon LOWINGO joins the siblings LO & WA on their adventures. The three friends got to know one another in the first issue of the Adventure Handbook. LOWINGO had gotten caught in a plastic bag and could not get free. LO & WA saved the trapped bird of prey and were awarded with a flute as an expression of thanks. The flute enables the siblings to become as small as a mouse. After shrinking them­selves, they hop onto LOWINGO’s back and fly off to their next adventure – journeys that have already taken them to many areas and countries throughout the world. An audio version of this is also available now.

Discover the world of LO & WA