THINK, RETHINK, ACT

At HEAD, we have a holistic attitude toward climate action. We’re working harder than ever, in every way we can, to keep our planet safe for the sports and activities you love for generations to come.
 
For nearly two decades, we’ve been the sport performance leader in sustainability, and our job is far from over. We know that environmental responsibility requires a full-circle approach, from innovation to waste reduction to protecting biodiversity.
 
Our planet is at a crucial tipping point: we must hold global temperatures to no higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Failure to do so will unleash catastrophic consequences for our health and for food, water, climate, and energy security – and our ability to play the sports we love.
 
The world’s ecosystems are inextricably linked. Every captured CO2 emission counts. And while we can’t solve the climate crisis alone, we’re doing our part. Since 2005, we’ve partnered with the leading environmental charities Cool Earth and the Rainforest Trust to conserve hundreds of thousands of acres of biodiverse Amazonian rainforest, to ensure that HEAD is always climate positive.
 
For us, the goal is maximum sustainability in all our processes, from manufacturing to shipping. HEAD’s innovations reduce emissions, and our environment-forward sustainable products keep your performance high and your carbon footprint low.
 
Sport is what we love and what we do. But without a liveable planet, there will be no sport. This is the most important match any of us will ever play – and we can’t lose.

Rethinking our sustainability pillars

Rethinking PackagingRethinking Packaging

Rethinking Packaging

We’re working to not only reduce packaging in all areas but also to redesign it to eliminate plastic, replacing it with sustainable materials with fewer printing inks across all our groups.

Rethinking R&DRethinking R&D

Rethinking R&D

We continuously grow our business through our innovative use of technology. Our approach to sustainability is exactly the same. We are constantly researching new materials and production processes, working to create more sustainable products.

Rethinking Our Strategy on Climate ActionRethinking Our Strategy on Climate Action

Rethinking Our Strategy on Climate Action

More than 15 years ago, HEAD was the first sporting goods company to launch a worldwide environmental program in partnership with the Rainforest Trust and Cool Earth. Now, climate action is part of what we do, every day.

Rethinking PackagingRethinking Packaging

Rethinking What We Do At Our Locations

All energy at our headquarters in Kennelbach is supplied by an on-site hydro plant driven by the neighboring Bregenzer Ach river. The Schindler GmbH & Co KG supply all commercial facilities on site with their own green electricity. 

Rethinking PackagingRethinking Packaging

Rethinking Products

We’re tackling sustainability like no other sports company. From bags made from recycled rPET bottles to ball tubes comprised of 100 percent recyclable materials, we’re changing the eco-friendly sports game.

HEAD is showing a vision of a more sustainable future for racquet sports with the development of prototype tennis racquets and pickleball paddles that amongst other materials, contain Toray’s 100% bio-circular carbon fibers [1] (using the mass balance approach [2]) instead of usual carbon fibers.

Toray’s bio-circular carbon fibers are created with the waste and residues of biological origin from agriculture, forestry and related industries from the start of the supply chain which – instead of being sent to landfill or otherwise taken out of the economy – are reused, used, or recycled.

[1] Bio-circular carbon fibers use the mass balance approach.

[2] A mass balance approach is one in which raw materials with certain characteristics (an example being biomass-derived) are mixed with other raw materials (such as petroleum-derived ones) in the processing and distribution process, from raw materials through to finished products. Characteristics are assigned to part of a product in line with the input proportions of raw materials with those characteristics.

SAME BALL, BETTER PACKAGING

Sample testing undertaken together with the Austrian recycling company Saubermacher has shown the potential of our new ball packaging to save up to 10 times more CO2 than existing ball cans.

The availability of new compounds and materials, as well as advances in recycling and machinery, means the new ball can moves up the recycling pyramid from being incinerated to fully recycled. All that is needed now is for players and clubs to ensure the cans find their way to the recycling so the full environmental benefits are realised.

The new cans include pre-consumer recycled PET, a shorter sleeve, less ink and lighter colours. All to ensure the cans are easier to recycle. 

HEAD creates a sustainable flax fibre tennis racquet.

HEAD’s research and development team, in Austria, have taken a conventional racquet design and radically transformed it. The innovative, new frame is engineered from organic-based elements. The structure partly replaces carbon fibres with flax based plant fibres, grommets are 100% plant-based, the racquet handle is recycled plastic and the strings are natural gut.

Two years into research on the Flax Racquet pilot project, HEAD believes the prototype is delivering outstanding performance and will eventually become a world class, sustainable tennis racquet.

This is just one part of the larger HEAD RETHINK project, to develop sporting products designed to significantly reduce impact on the environment.

Research & development of sustainable ski materials with fibereuse.

As part of the FiberEUse project, working towards a new circular economy solutions for the reuse of end-of-life fiber reinforced composites, HEAD has developed a demo-case ski.

The ski construction uses GFRP (Glass fiber reinforced polymer composites) mechanical recyclate, in the core material as filler to strengthen the polyurethane construction currently used. With this additional material providing reinforcement, less PU foam is required. The production of this demo-case ski has identified that the use of recycled GRFP can lead to an excellent performance without any tradeoffs. This research & development project is part of the HEAD RETHINK program working towards a more sustainable business.

Less & better packaging

HEAD has switched to designing product boxes, hangtags and header cards using as few non-sustainable materials, as possible.

Within our packaging we continually reduce the use of non-sustainable materials such as plastics and have switched to using recycled paper.

We’re also using fewer print colors for better recyclability, we have removed the plastic coating from our header cards and attached hangtags using only 100% natural hemp cord.

Sustainable Product

Building on the success of the original HEAD Gravity r-PET bag, made by using 36 recycled plastic bottles in every bag, we’ve now developed the new recycled KORE r-PET backpack.

Using what we’ve learnt from these projects, we’re already working on other new exciting developments.

MORE EFFICIENT SKI PRODUCTION PROCESS

In our ski production facility at our Austrian headquarters, we use a new, efficient natural gas system to heat our ski presses.

They’re then cooled using technology powered by a low impact water-to-water heating pump process.

Any compressed air needed during manufacturing is produced by two highly efficient compressors designed to recover and reuse heat.

The majority of lighting has been switched to LED, with all new installations using LEDs.

IMPROVING OUR SKI PRODUCTION MATERIALS

Our Winter Sports Division is now creating products with improved sustainability, without compromising on performance. As part of the HEAD RETHINK programme we are constantly working on ski production material improvements. Currently, HEAD ski’s steel edges contain 20% recycled steel parts and 70% of our top-sheets are ECO-PA 11 top-sheets. (Co-Ex means 50% regular plastic 50% (PA12) and 50% biodegradable ricinus oil (PA11), a move towards more sustainable ski production.

WORKING WITH OUR COOL EARTH, PARTNERS.

In 2007, we partnered with the global environmental charity Cool Earth to kick off a worldwide environmental program – the first of its kind for a sporting goods company.

Cool Earth aims to tackle the climate crisis in a cost-effective, mass membership approach enabling individuals and groups to directly fund rain forest protection on a massive scale and safeguard this invaluable resource.

Our Sustainable Products