SUSE is doing its bit to help protect the environment. The open source software firm supported Lewis Pugh‘s historic swim across a supra-glacial lake in East Antarctica. Pugh is a renowned endurance athlete and United Nations Patron of the Oceans. On Thursday, he attempted the one-kilometer swim in the most extreme conditions, in a bid to call for the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around Antarctica.

Melissa Di Donato, SUSE CEO, said “This is no doubt one of the toughest swims in Lewis’s life. His spirit of being the difference inspires all of us at SUSE to take action and think outside of the box about how we can do our part to protect our environment.”

Pugh pioneers swims in the most vulnerable ecosystems on Earth to campaign for their protection. To achieve his goal of fully protecting at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, he has taken huge risks and broken records.

He was the first person to swim across the North Pole and the first person to swim the entire length of the English Channel.

His campaigns have been instrumental in protecting over 2.2 million square kilometers (about 850,000 square miles) of ocean, an area larger than Western Europe.