Groupe Lafuma

The Lafuma Group is a France based organization that owns outdoor sports brands such as Lafuma, Millet, Le Chameau, Oxbow and Ober. Since the early 1990s the organization has been involved in environmental collaborations and their sustainable development strategy is an ongoing and growing process.

After a partnership with 'France Nature Environnement' in 1992, Lafuma teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 1998 in the creation and application of an ethics chart and social audits for Lafuma suppliers.

From a single eco-design product in 2000, the organization has set its sites on offering an entire eco-line. In order to produce this line of products with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle, the organization is focusing on the following areas:

Eco-friendly materials
One of the most polluting aspects of a product is the material used to make it. Lafuma is always searching for the most innovative materials in term of environment care, and they have so far utilized the following materials:
Organic cotton: unlike classic cotton which uses synthetics chemicals such as fertilizers used for its growth, this cotton is very eco-friendly
Hemp: its natural strength doesn’t require fertilizers that deteriorate soil fertility
Lyocell: made from wood-cellulose, the manufacturing process of this fiber creation is entirely less polluting.
Natural rubber: Less polluting than its synthetic equivalent
Vegetably tanned leather: Doesn’t use heavy metals such as chrome 6, which is very noxious for the environment and human health

Low-polluting manufacturing sites
Environmental audits: Lafuma has submitted all its manufacturing sites to external audits to set improvement objectives on each of them. They take into account noise pollution, air emission, wastes and recycling possibilities, water pollution, use of energy, and so on.

Optimized logistics
Clean transportation: Lafuma is already using waterway transportation between Lyon and Fos-Sur-Mer for all its products heading towards North America. Other improvements include trying to use combined rail and road transportation in France to reduce the pollution of lorries.

Specific sales operation
Lafuma is dedicated to selling its eco-design products, to inform customers about environment matters, and to encourage actions to protect the environment. "One T-shirt = One tree" is an example from 2004: for each product sold, 3 euros were used by WWF to carry out well-considered reforestation in France, after the fires that devastated the country in the summer of 2003.

Source: Groupe Lafuma http://www.groupe-lafuma.com/

LINK :
Groupe Lafuma