Wherever you turn these days, Black Friday is everywhere. With discounts and supposed “bargains” (online) dealers traditionally kick off the Christmas season on the Friday after Thanksgiving to boost consumption. Even in our part of the world the extended weekend around Black Friday has become one of the busiest of the year – and, unfortunately, also one of the most environmentally harmful. That’s because more consumption means more waste, more CO2 emissions, unnecessary waste of resources, and so on. In short, an additional burden on our already troubled planet.

The problem is that far too many people purchase too much stuff they don’t need. The good news is that you can decide for yourself whether you want to join the shopping frenzy or take a more sustainable approach and buy consciously. There are worthwhile alternatives to Black Friday. For example, our Martini Green Week, which turns Black Friday into a green week that also benefits nature.

As an outdoor company, we – together with our community – have a special responsibility to protect what we all love: nature and the outdoors that mean so much to us. That's why we've been involved in environmental, landscape and nature protection around our home base in Annaberg for years. And that's why we've created Martini Green Week, a conservation project that needs your support.

This is how it works: for every order we receive between November 18 and 28, 2022, we will plant a tree – together with the Austrian Federal Forests (Österreichische Bundesforste). This way, with your purchase you can give something back to nature.

Skiing is great, no doubt about it, but let’s face it: a ski slope constitutes a serious interference with nature. With Green Week, we are investing in nature and species protection right on our doorstep – in our home ski region of Dachstein West, where the Austrian Federal Forests have restored the former Horn reservoir in Russbach to transform it into amphibian waters. 

True to our motto "discover outdoor moments together” and because conservation is much more fun when teaming up with likeminded people, the entire Martini Sportswear team will get to work in spring 2023. Under the expert guidance of the Federal Forests, we will use the proceeds from the Green Week campaign to plant rare tree and shrub species and hang bat boxes around the restored water body.

With this activity we want to improve the habitat in the vicinity of the slope for insects, birds, bats, and other animals and promote biodiversity. At the same time, we hope to enhance our team’s understanding and appreciation of nature. What we have around our Basecamp Annaberg is unique and worth protecting.

Sustainability is the great issue of our time and living and acting in a sustainable way is certainly one of the biggest challenges we as humans and companies face.

At Martini Sportswear, we take our responsibility seriously – renewable raw materials, state-of-the-art production logistics, smart recycling management, waste and pollutant minimisation are essential to us.

In more specific terms: 95% of our production takes place in the EU. We make our products to last and focus on repair rather than disposal. When sourcing our materials, we pay close attention to where and who they come from. And we support environmental, landscape and nature protection projects such as the Green Week. Because for us the future is green, not black.

Are you with us?