Suunto Vertical Week mobilizes global community for Protect Our Winters Europe
– Suunto strengthens science-based climate action at its 90th anniversary
NEW YORK, March 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2026 edition of Suunto Vertical Week mobilized the global outdoor community to collectively climb 136 million human-powered vertical meters between February 23 and March 1, exceeding the 10 million meter target and triggering a €10,000 donation from Suunto to Protect Our Winters Europe (POW Europe). Vertical Week is an annual campaign for Suunto, and for the past two years the company has used the initiative to support awareness of POW Europe's climate advocacy work. As Suunto marks its 90th anniversary in 2026, the company is committed to continue tracking its climate impact and use only recognised climate frameworks to guide its actions.
Since 2014, Suunto has invited it's community worldwide to head outdoors, push their limits and track their ascent during the annual Suunto Vertical Week. The initiative again demonstrated strong global engagement in human-powered outdoor activity and, for the second consecutive year, in climate-focused action. The 2026 challenge, organized in partnership with POW Europe, ran from February 23 to March 1 and set a collective target of 10 million vertical meters to unlock Suunto's €10,000 donation to POW Europe. The goal was exceeded, with participants recording a record total of 136 million vertical meters.
- Total vertical meters climbed: 136 million meters
- Total number of participants: 189,000
- Most active countries by number of participants: 1. United Kingdom 2. France 3. Germany
- Most popular sports activities: 1. Running 2. Walking 3. Cycling
Partnership with POW Europe continues for a second year
POW Europe works to mobilize the outdoor community around climate advocacy. The Vertical Week campaign brings the organization's work to the attention of more than 189,000 participants and encourages engagement in climate action. The collaboration is intended to connect outdoor participation with awareness of climate impacts affecting winter and mountain environments.
Benjamin Aidan, Partnership Director at POW Europe, said the initiative helps translate community motivation into tangible support for climate advocacy. "This campaign again shows what can be achieved when the outdoor community comes together around a shared cause, and around the winter environments we seek to protect."
At 90 years, Suunto emphasizes product-level environmental impact and science-based climate targets
Founded in 1936, Suunto marks its 90th anniversary in 2026. Suunto's sustainability work is increasingly focused on trying to quantify the company's environmental impacts and verifying related related data by internationally validated frameworks. The company takes voluntary action to compensate its carbon emissions by offsetting the product lifecycle emissions of sold outdoor watches and field compasses through certified carbon projects. Offsetting is based on lifecycle emission calculations that cover materials, production, transportation, product use, and disposal.
Suunto emphasizes that extending product lifetime remains a primary lever to minimize environmental impacts and resource use.The company designs durable, high-quality products and maintains repair services where technically feasible, while continuing research to identify most significant impacts and improvement areas in its value chain.
At the end of 2025, Suunto committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a global framework that validates corporate greenhouse-gas reduction targets against climate science and the goals of the Paris Agreement. During 2026, Suunto will develop and submit its near-term science-based emissions reduction targets for SBTi validation. Once approved, these targets will steer the company's emissions-reduction roadmap in the coming years.
Upright analysis indicates net positive overall impact
According to an assessment by The Upright Project at the end of 2025, Suunto's overall impact across the dimensions of society, knowledge, health and environment, is positive: Suunto creates on average 36% less negative impact than positive impact to the world. This places the company in the top 36 percent of approximately 9,000 companies analyzed globally. The model, which uses machine-learning analysis of more than 200 million scientific articles and major global databases (including OECD, WHO, IPCC, IMF and World Bank sources), counts in impacts of all operations of the company and the lifetime impacts of products.
"Suunto's largest positive contributions relate to knowledge creation and the role of activity-tracking products in supporting physical health, and employment and tax contributions. The negative impacts are on a similar level to any electronics company and linked to rare raw material extraction and electronics waste. We continuously follow changes in the operational context and international regulations to improve our environmental and human rights due diligence in supply chains. We are a member of the corporate responsibility network FIBS, supply chain sustainability organisation Sedex and the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI). All our product carbon footprints are calculated in accordance with the global GHG Protocol and verified by an independent third party," said Suunto's Senior Sustainability Manager, Heidi Heikkinen.
As Suunto looks towards the next 90 years, it will continue to prioritize measurable impact reductions, product longevity and science-based climate action. The 90-year milestone reinforces Suunto's long-term focus on building durable products for outdoor use while systematically reducing the company's environmental footprint.
For more details, athlete stories, and in-depth statistics from the event, visit www.suunto.com/verticalweek.
Images for media use:
https://media.suunto.com/pub/collection/35428a6a0233a0fed7dbf56ffc1b7517?locale=en
More information about Suunto's sustainability work: https://www.suunto.com/Sustainability/
About Suunto
Suunto is a Finnish brand, established in 1936. It was founded by Finnish inventor Tuomas Vohlonen, who pioneered a new standard for navigational precision. That same year, his innovation – a field compass – was stronger, steadier, and more accurate than any other handheld navigational tool of its time. It was the first of many Suunto products built to withstand the harsh conditions of our native Finland.
In the near century since, Tuomas's spirit of innovation has continued to chart Suunto's course. From some of history's first dive computers and high-altitude wrist altimeters to today's GPS watches, Suunto remains a trusted companion for outdoor adventurers across the globe.
Supporting explorers, athletes, and weekend warriors alike remains our core mission – providing the tools to dive deeper, climb higher, and push the limits of human potential.
SOURCE Suunto
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