Kitted out from head to foot by Lafuma, Jean-Louis Etienne took off from the Norwegian archipelago at 6.10am on Monday 5 April, to make the first solo crossing of the North Pole in a balloon. Fifty years after accompanying Paul-Emile Victor in Greenland, Lafuma is once again linking its name with a prestigious polar expedition.

Jean-Louis Etienne said he had felt "enormous emotion as he took off" and that it was "a very intense moment": Here we go! Yesterday morning, Jean-Louis Etienne left Longyearben, in the Norwegian archipelago of Spitzbergen, for a 3500 km cross on board a Rozière balloon filled with a mixture of helium gas and hot air.
He set course for Alaska where he should arrive in seven to ten days, with an average outside temperature of minus 30 degrees but 15 degrees inside the pod, which is equipped with propane heating.
During this expedition the doctor will undertake scientific measurements of CO2, the magnetic field, suspended particles and more.


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Lafuma supports Jean-Louis Etienne.

Lafuma and Botanic join forces to promote the recycling of Transatube deckchair canvases.

Nothing is wasted, everything is transformed! Lafuma and the Botanic Gardens have decided to come together to create a recycling project named; “Give your deckchairs a new lease of life!”

The aim is to encourage users to simply change the canvas of their Lafuma Transatube deckchairs, instead of buying a new one, and by doing so reduce the environmental impact of the product, as the frame has a considerably longer lifespan than the canvas.

Customers therefore have until 15th August to return them to one of Botanic’s 59 shops (except Annecy-le-Vieux). In exchange, they will receive 20% off the purchase of a new canvas, which is equivalent to a sale price 15.20 Euros instead of 19.

The collected canvases will be recycled in the Ferrari Group’s Italian Texyloop factory which produces Lafuma’s deckchair canvases and which has developed and implemented an industrial-scale closed circuit recycling process.

"EARTH HOUR" will take place on 27 March 2010, 100 days after the Copenhagen summit on climate change, an operation organised by the WWF in which all lights will be turned off between 20h30 and 21h30.

This event is the largest ever demonstration to promote the fight against climate disruption.
LAFUMA is supporting WWF in this action and is raising employees awareness about energy savings and climatic change.

This is not the first attempt at "EARTH HOUR".
In fact, the operation was a success in 2009: 88 participating countries, 375 symbolic monuments were extinguished for one hour.
In France, 200 towns took part in the EARTH HOUR operation, resulting in energy savings of 800 megawatts, the equivalent of one day's consumption for a city such as Lyon.
For 2010: 1173 towns in 92 countries are committed and nearly 9 million French people in 176 towns will take part.

www.earthhour.fr for more information and to follow the movement live.

Two years after the installation of its solar panels, Lafuma reviews its energy saving achievements.

The photovoltaic power station produces 118°000 Kwh annually, equivalent to the average annual electricity consumption of 40 homes. It is able to meet 75% of the lighting requirements for offices and the furniture factory in Anneyron.

The roof has been renovated thanks to the 1500m² solar roofing, which at the same time improved insulation and reduced heating and air conditioning consumption by 50%.

The savings made are also financial, since the electricity bill has been reduced by 40%.

In brief, the investment has proved more than beneficial for the environment.