Our Road to Sustainability

Our Vision

Let’s first clarify; what’s the big picture here? What are we trying to achieve with our purpose-driven sustainability work? To answer as simply as possible; To cool down the planet and preserve its natural beauty.

To put it bluntly, we are in a global climate crisis. Our planet is warming fast. Luckily, there is a solution: If we bring back nature by applying cost-effective nature-based solutions, we can mitigate global warming by 37%!* This will benefit nature, biodiversity and people everywhere, and help cool down our planet.

We regreened 8.232.529 m² of land.

Our Purpose

We strive to be a purpose-driven company. By this we mean our purpose forms the guidelines for everything we do. From our business model, brand identity, product development, all the way to our company culture and daily habits. Whether internal or external, small or big picture, everything we do is rooted in our brand purpose.

So, without any further delay..

"We exist to drive positive change for our planet. We aim to use our business, community, and creativity to do good."

Cortazu aspires to create lasting experiences whilst re-greening the planet. The goal is to facilitate enthusiasm for adventurers with a passion for sustainability. Read on to find out about how we are putting this vision into practice with our 3-fold strategy!

Our Strategy

To drive positive change for the planet together, we’ve divided our strategy into three key areas: Minimise Impact, Ethical Manufacturing and Restore Nature.

1 | Minimise Impact

We want to minimise the impact we have on the planet and reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible. This all starts with measuring and understanding our own environmental footprint, allowing us to set specific targets to reduce our CO2 emissions effectively. This is just the beginning of our journey- but we see it as an important step in the right direction. Following are 3 examples of thing we are proud of that help us work towards these goals:

Technical innovation

One way we minimise our impact is through technical innovation. Upon realising the negative impact that nylon has on the environment, combined with the sheer prevalence of nylon usage in the outdoor fashion industry, we set about to innovate something that had never been done before. To create the world’s first 3-layer outdoor jacket made of 100% recycled nylon.

Thanks to this innovative creation, Cortazu was selected by a jury panel of 43 judges and received an ISPO Gold Award in 2019. This means we are the best product in our category. ISPO is the World's largest Trade Fair for the outdoor industry.

Recycled components

Another important step in minimizing our impact is the choice of components. Our current Mountain range of products are all composed of 100% recycled materials and we are constantly working on advancing the technology even further by keeping a close look at the newest innovations in the industry.

Certified B Corp™

We are proud to announce that we are officially part of the B Corporation community. Certified B Corporations are a new kind of business that balances purpose and profit. As an aspiring B-Corp, we request to be graded by the nonprofit B Lap each year to ensure we are meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and accountability. From now on, we are legally required to consider the impact of our decisions on our workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. All with the aim to drive a global movement of people to use business as a force for good.

2 | Ethical Manufacturing

The manufacturing process of our products has been carefully curated with a focus on a transparent, people-first approach. By concentrating our efforts on fair working conditions and long, meaningful relationships with our suppliers, we ensure that our manufacturing is as ethical as possible.

Our products are manufactured by Toray in Vietnam, which is a producer for many prominent outdoor brands. The long term relationships we have built with both our suppliers and manufacturers gives us unrivaled control of every step in the supply chain and lets us be highly selective on the partners we work with. Importantly, this allows us to ensure our products are produced in a sustainable manner and the working conditions of workers at every step of the supply chain are not just fair, but great.

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3 | Restore Nature

"We don’t sell to get. We sell to give."

Cortazu doesn't exist just to sell outerwear products. We're here to inspire people to create their own adventures while supporting the world around us.

That's why we partnered up with Justdiggit and started to cool down the planet. If we can warm up the earth, we can also cool it down.

Our goal is to Re-green 10 million square meters of land by 2025

As of 2022 we have re-greened 8.232.529 m² of land in the Enkii area in Kuku, Kenya. But we are not stopping there! Check out our regreening page to see what our plans are and how it is made possible through bund-technology.