Illuminating More Sustainable Solutions

For more than 50 years, Petzl has been the leader in headlamp technology, giving those passionate about the outdoors the ability to take on unique experiences day or night, whether they're exploring deep underground or traversing summit ridges. But today, we're facing a monumental challenge: building a more sustainable future. Reducing our CO2 emissions, as well as recovering and reusing our waste, are major topics we need to tackle. There’s a long and complex road ahead of us, but the first step is optimizing our products. Our headlamp packaging makes up 71% of the plastic used in our packaging. So we redesigned it to integrate lower-impact materials.

For the Next Generation

If you’ve experienced the mountains after dark, spent a night in a tent with your family, brewed a cup of coffee by headlamp in the early hours of the morning — then you’ve already witnessed the magic of nature and you know what it means to marvel at its beauty.

We want future generations to carry on this passion for the outdoors. That’s why our equipment offers superior performance and is built to last, so we can limit our environmental impact.

As a manufacturer, Petzl is giving more and more attention to these issues. For several years, we’ve been committed to following a more sustainable path that includes reducing our carbon intensity*, drastically reducing and recovering our waste, and supporting our partners in this initiative.

A Bright Idea​

Innovators in hands-free lighting for over 50 years, Petzl has opened up a whole new world of adventure and exploration. In keeping with the spirit of innovation that has always driven the brand, we’re rethinking a number of processes to limit our impact and better protect the environment in which we operate. Three priorities guide our efforts to reduce our carbon emissions and waste: eco-design, sourcing more sustainable materials, and optimizing product usage.

For headlamps, this translates into the following:

•  Recycled fabric is used for headbands to reduce the impact of polyester, for example
•  More than 90% of Petzl headlamps sold are compatible with rechargeable batteries
•  Lamps have a 5-year warranty and we offer a repair service in an effort to prolong its lifespan
•  Lastly, we have drastically reduced the amount of plastic used for headlamp packaging

Objective: Zero Plastic

At Petzl, we’ve made a company-wide goal to totally eliminate the use of single-use plastics by 2025. Representing 79 metric tons of plastic, non-reusable product packaging was the first issue we tackled, specifically headlamp packaging, which alone accounted for 56 metric tons.

In fact, TIKKA headlamp packaging accounted for more than 50% of our annual plastic usage, all packaging included. So, we prioritized updating their packaging. It took several months to assess the needs of our resellers and customers, and then modify our manufacturing processes accordingly.

We introduced plastic decades ago because of its durable and transparent qualities. Eliminating it from our packaging is no simple task. Customers in the market for a new headlamp must be able to quickly understand the product in front of them. Without the transparency of plastic, we had to figure out how to clearly depict the lamp's appearance and function. Similarly, the new packaging needed to provide the same durability and support as the plastic one, in order to protect the product.

After a year of work, our new cardboard packaging is finally here, allowing us to drastically reduce our plastic use. For headlamps alone, we went from 56 metric tons to just 4 — a 93% reduction. The teams responsible for the optimization of our packaging are proud of their work and are determined to continue finding more sustainable solutions. They’re currently studying ways to eliminate an additional 4 metric tons of plastic.

Here’s a picture of the previous plastic TIKKA packaging and the new cardboard packaging being used today.

*Carbon intensity is the ratio between the company's CO2 emissions and its sales (production).