Summer is waking up here in Tyrol and we are already biking, climbing, mountaineering and hiking in our home country. Our goal as the first ClimatePartner certified glove brand is to also bring our personal outdoor experiences into harmony with the environment. Our ecological footprint is made up of many factors. Sustainability and environmental protection should be a matter of course in all outdoor experiences. Everyone can help to protect nature as much as possible. This way, our children and our grandchildren will also have the chance to explore the nature we have preserved.

Sustainable travel made easy

The first challenge starts with the journey to the planned tour, which often accounts for the largest share of the carbon footprint in traveling and sports. Luckily for us, the mountains are right on our doorstep! For this reason alone, we support the initiative "Dein Winter Dein Sport" (Your Winter Your Sport), which presents Europe's most beautiful winter sports areas with good rail connections and environmentally friendly mobility on Winterrail.

Here at our place in Innsbruck, many great tours are also easily accessible by bus or train. For example, if you decide to spend your vacation in the heart of the Alps, you can ride the city's public transportation system in Innsbruck for free. The offer is valid for stays of two nights or more, and you can get the required Welcome Card directly from the landlord. An insider tip in Innsbruck is the bus line J. Its motto „From Peak To Peak – take the J Line“ is the program. Across the entire city, the J line connects the Patscherkofel with the Nordkette. The offer for inexpensive and sustainable mobility is offered by numerous tourist regions in the Alpine region - it's worth checking out the offers carefully! If you travel by train and use public transport on site, you reduce CO2 emissions enormously. At Zanier, we try to replace car travel with train travel whenever possible. If this is not possible for you, carpooling can also help to reduce CO2 emissions. Basically, the less time you spend in the car, the better! Multi-day mountain bike and hiking tours can be found in all parts of Tyrol. From difficult to easy tours, there is something for everyone.

Protecting nature and animals on the mountain

Local nature conservation is also a big issue in mountain sports. For us, this means one thing above all: we try to impact nature as little as possible during our adventures and explorations. This includes, what many don't know, staying on the trail. The vegetation in the high mountains is sensitive due to the short summers. The natural habitat of the animals is spared if we stick to signposted routes in summer and winter.

An equally vexing issue - not only in our mountains - is trash. Trash can become a challenge, especially on longer tours. The simplest way to make things easier for yourself is to take as little trash and packaging with you as possible from the start. Our tip: reusable stainless steel bottles and boxes. These are more robust than glass and also keep warm/cold. You can easily fill up your bottle with fresh spring water on the way, as most wells in Tyrol have drinking water quality. To ensure that the water is really safe to drink, just look at the label most wells have. With the innovative Bachgold® outdoor water filter, which consumers can now also find in our online shop and which Zanier distributes to European specialist retailers, you can moreover enjoy fresh water at any time – and in just a few seconds! Buying regional, preferably unpackaged products also ensures that there is as little waste as possible on the mountains.

Nature conservation and environmental protection do not have to exclude outdoor adventures at all. In Tyrol, you'll find several climate-friendly areas that still have plenty of action to offer! Ischgl, for example, already minimizes its CO2 emissions and relies on local climate protection programs. You certainly won't get bored there though! Around Ischgl you will find many panoramic mountain bike tours and trails. The Silvretta-Seilbahn AG also acts sustainably and offsets its unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions via climate protection projects, obtains electricity from renewable energy sources.

Vacation where others live

Independent of nature and climate protection: the tourist regions of the Alps are above all also living, working and recreation areas for the local population. Since we also want to make a contribution to ensuring that life in the Alps remains worth living in a holistic sense, we support the non-profit organization Vitalpin. Its goal is to unite both people and companies who live in the Alps from and with tourism. In doing so, it becomes clear that in order to live together successfully and maintain the quality of life, the alpine habitat and culture must be protected above all.

What you can do to support this: Set your vacation on local and sustainable businesses, for everything you need. There are now numerous hotels and hosts in the Alpine region that are committed to sustainability through certifications. You're sure to find something at Bio Hotels or Sleep Green Hotels - or you can read directly on a hotel website whether an accommodation is climate-neutral, for example. One example is the group of the Nationalpark Partnerbetriebe in East Tyrol - where the Zanier brand was founded in 1969. Businesses are managed in harmony with the original nature of East Tyrol and the Hohe Tauern National Park.

Photo: azett-kommunikation

We support you with sustainable outdoor experiences

Sustainability doesn't just start with the start of the tour or the hotel booking. We can already show consideration for the environment when it comes to sports equipment. Our topic. The trend in textile production is slowly moving towards reducing CO2 emissions. We welcome and support this development since 2019. You yourself as a consumer can help even more: Don't buy more than necessary - and we know how hard that is. Choose your products carefully. If you choose products with good quality, you will not only enjoy them longer, but you will also do good for the environment. We also have tips for you on how to extend the life of your gloves with the right care.

Zanier Gloves is not only about making high-quality gloves, but also about protecting our planet. “We only have this one sphere to live on. We have to take good care of it,” says Markus Zanier. That's why it's very important to us to counteract the throwaway society and to offer you sustainable and durable products.  In addition, we are constantly pushing the use of sustainable materials such as TIROLWOOL®, PRIMALOFT® GOLD INSULATION ECO and PRIMALOFT® SILVER INSULATION BIO or SYMPATEX. We have been the first climate-neutral glove brand in the world since 2019 and the first ClimatePartner-certified glove brand since 2023. Based on our carbon footprint, we can identify areas of the company that make it possible to reduce and avoid emissions. The remaining CO2 emissions are calculated and offset by certified climate protection projects. In the Alpine region, this includes Vitalpin. On an international level, we support a climate protection project in Guyan, China. There, electricity generation has been converted from coal-fired power plants to environmentally friendly, climate-friendly wind energy. The Climate Partner ID of the Zanier company and the Climate Partner ID of the Zanier products transparently present the CO2 footprint and the details of certification and compensation.

Sustainability is our only possible future. We are already making our mark and continue to work on keeping our footprint as small as possible. #mymountainpassion stands not only for the outdoor experience itself, but also for the passion to preserve our nature. What are you waiting for? Join us on your next sustainable outdoor adventure and tell us about it with #mymountainpassion.