Snowy Peak leading the way in sustainable business

Snowy Peak leading the way in sustainable business

Snowy Peak and its Untouched World label were rewarded for their ethos on the environment at the inaugural New Zealand sustainable business awards in Auckland last night. Carter Holt Harvey was judged the winner of the large New Zealand companies followed by Snowy Peak, with BP Oil third. Urgent Couriers won the medium sized company award and Omaha Blueberries were judged the best small company.

Snowy Peak, a lifestyle fashion leader, has won a string of awards in recent years. The company, led by 2002 South Island Businesswoman of the Year Peri Drysdale, has a mission to ``truly inspire its customers through design and innovation. It has initiatives such as environmental fabric design incorporating possum and wallaby control and innovative cotton and linen based fabrics. It has also led on energy reduction programmes and emissions abatement through tree planting programmes. Mrs Drysdale said Snowy Peak was committed to a sustainable future ``to help this country and the planet at large’’.

``We need to be a world leader in sustainable development. New Zealand has a great opportunity to become a distinctively special country.’’ The company has set up a foundation which focuses on human spirit growth and development many fine community initiatives. Judges said Snowy Peak showed ``passionate leadership from beginning to end, followed up by clear strategic thinking’’.

They said they especially liked the positioning of the brand which had been taken globally.

``Snowy Peak’s strength lies in strategic thinking and innovation and developing leadership,’’ they said.

Untouched World designer Emily Drysdale who leads the company’s sustainability team collected the award last night. She did her masters thesis in the UK on sustainable sportswear. Untouched World is releasing its summer range to the market this week.

World leaders at the 1999 APEC Forum in Auckland all wore Untouched World clothing and then US President Bill Clinton returned two years ago to buy more Untouched World clothing.

Snowy Peak, the parent company of Untouched World, is a design house, retail and fashion premium clothing operation with headquarters in Christchurch.

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