Donald said:
"While the injection of sulfates into the atmosphere may REDUCE the effects of global warming there is a bad side to this idea. Did we not have a pr..." [read]
Roy G Biv said:
"To me, this represents the short-termism of so much environmental fundraising.
Yes, using Palin allows groups to more effectively milk the..." [read]
nuvi said:
"I wonder if these could be used to clean algal blooms, then we can make some fuel out of it...." [read]
matt said:
"heres the deal. Being a pet is not natural. The animal was meant to live in the wild. But people have domesticated them over hundreds of years. The..." [read]
joe said:
"As dumb as it gets.
Instead of promoting the environment they are trying to promote the Fraud King Oumgabama.
Really Really Stupid.</..." [read]
grant said:
"Hum, interesting that they used a helicopter to film this stunt that comments on global warming. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty confident ..." [read]
We’ve previously mentioned innovative tent maker, NEMO Equipment,r for their recycled backpacking tent and bamboo tent poles. We also noted how they donated over 150 tents to Kashmiri earthquake victims. Now they are at it again with the donating thing. This time generously forking over $13,000 USD in backpacking and mountaineering tents to youth outdoor programs.
Here is something that is 100% recycled, but doesn’t look it. ECOALF is the new fabric developed by the Spanish company fun&basics, made from recycled PET bottles. It is a high quality textile: flexible, tension resistant, long lasting, waterproof and lightweight. The first bags made from ECOALF are a toilet bag, a small bag, a cabin trolley and a large, wheeled luggage bag. The fun thing about them is the visualisation of the recycled bottles. Each bag tells you exactly how many 75cl PET plastic bottles were needed to make it.
Earlier this year the Six Flags Inc. is adding green throughout their 20 theme-park locations, but many are so behind the scenes that you may not have noticed.
You a runner? Or an exercise-oholic? And you want your workouts to reflect your green lifestyle? Well, the race is ON…or at least for me and a few friends to find the best performing green running equipment. Since February of this year (2009), I’ve made it my personal mission to seek out the most excellent green products in the running world as I train for my first marathon in November. Most people think running is a simple sport in which all that is needed is a good pair of shoes to be active. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Recycled plastic soda bottles are now showing up in everything from toothbrushes to park benches to jackets and now they are even being molded into the 2009 Platinum B9 (b9 = pronounced "benign") wetsuit by Billabong. Plus the new suits come with anti-shark invisibility resin.
Pssst! Sssh! It’s supposed to be a secret, so let’s just keep this strictly between you and us okay. Don’t tell anyone, not even your best friends and family. And certainly don’t pass on the news to that crew hanging round your FaceBook page. But Nau have started their SummerFun sale, with 50% off everything on their site.
It’s going to be hard not telling anyone that all this cool, technical, stylish, outdoor inspired, eco-apparel fashioned from recycled polyester, organic cotton, corn PLA, mohair, down, and merino wool, is now available at half price. But we’re sure you’re up to the challenge.
Toast marshmallows, listen to owls, watch the moon rise, identify celestial constellations.
(Did you know the word ‘planet’ is said to be derived from Greek for ‘wanderer’? Or that while stars twinkle, planets merely glow? Or that by lying back watching the heavens on a clear night you should see a ‘falling star’ about every 20 minutes? And that these are really just small meteors burning up as they bump into our atmosphere? At least this is what my astronomer instructor reckoned when I studied outdoor education many, many moons ago.)
Although US National Camping Month appears to be a construct of the marketing department for The North Face, pioneer of the geodesic dome tent, the underlying theme is very sound. TNF cite the Outdoor Industry Association’s 2008 Outdoor Recreation Participation Report in reporting that from 2006 to 2007, there was almost a 12% decrease of participation in outdoor activities among American children ages 6 to 17 years of age.
We recently made mention of outdoor footwear company, Merrell, and their continuing campaign to get folk outside, in that instance to the Rothbury festival in July 09. Well, now they are at it again. This time teaming up with the US National Park Foundation (NPF), who Merrell say are an ideal partner with a shared passion. “ ... our shared goal is to work together on a long term basis to educate and motivate people of all ages and activity levels to get outside and play in our national outdoor playgrounds.”
How will they achieve this?...
Image via: Getty Images.
Fishing itself seems so benign (other than killing fish), with just you and mother nature standing idly by for hours on end. What could be wrong with that? Well, all of those lures add up to 25 million pounds of lures left at the bottom of waterways every year. Tinkerer and fisherman Ben Hobbins has a better idea, reports Popular Science....
We only started writing about END Footwear a year ago. They didn’t even have retail product at that stage. Their Environmentally Neutral Design(ed) running shoes and boots eventually debuted in August 2008. Now they’ve just announced the company has been purchased by another Oregon based footwear company LaCrosse (who already own the Danner brand). ...
When I first started talking with Graham in mid 2004 about his embryonic TreeHugger web concept, I expressed some reservation about how long we could keep the project going. I figured that, at our then rate of 6 posts a day, we’d run out of eco design products in abut 4 months. Boy, was I wrong. And deliriously happy to have been so.
Here we are five years on, and just yesterday alone we published a ginormous 43 posts. Admittedly not all eco-design related. But still. The growth in products that consider their environmental and social impact has simply gone ballistic in the past few years. New eco start-ups continue to appear at a phenomenal rate of knots. And here is yet one more.
A British based surf company, Mocean, making surfboard bags from hemp and recycled polyethylene, as well as leashes from recycled polyurethane. ...
Photo: Mickey Smith for Rip Curl
Whoops, we missed the UK launch of Rip Curl’s National Wetsuit Amnesty and Project Resurrection, which was held last weekend, in Newquay.
But the basic premise is this: Rip Curl has been taking back old wetsuits and reprocessing their materials, with manufacturing offcuts, to make recycled outsoles for a line of footwear. ‘Resurrection Rubber’ is a mixture of chopped-up neoprene (30%) and rubber. This sounds like a cool project and hats off to Rip Curl Europe for putting energy into it. But we wondered if the Australian parent company were involved in anything similar at home. We were very surprised.
...
Remember the British technical surfwear company, Finisterre, whom we found were making some really cool gear with innovative knits of merino wool from New Zealand? We alluded then to some ultra-fine wool that they were exploring much closer home. In North Devon, Just a couple of hours up the coast from their base in Cornwall, as it turns out. Well, some more of the story has recently been revealed. And it involves a rare breed of sheep that has almost been lost....
What can we say, we love Nau. And as our longtime readers know, we’ve been following the company through their launch, closing, and re-launch. Based in Portland, OR, Nau is a technical and lifestyle outdoor apparel company. They are dedicated to making unique, stylish and highly functional clothing in the most environmentally and socially responsible manner possible. After their re-launch, Nau is once again committed to their “Business Unusual,” philosophy, which is “the power of business as a force for positive change, and seeking to balance the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit.” ...
Recently I penned a scathing post about a move by the USDA to designate PVC as “organic vinyl”. However, I didn’t publish the post. Because, on double checking my sources, I discovered it was an April Fools joke. I’m therefore very pleased to have a positive (and factual) story in the same realm. Mountain Equipment Cooperative (MEC) in Canada have released a line of new transparent PVC-free drybags....
Nemo Equipment and their ambition to make green lightweight camping gear, especially tents, first scored a mention back in August 2008. Their recent winning of an Outside Magazine’s 2009 Gear of the Year Award (for the Losi 3P Tent) prompted us to check in on their progress in crafting a recycled tent and bamboo tent poles....
Images via: Zoic.comSan Diego based cycling clothing company Zoic just released their spring line, which now includes EcoZoic - an organic and bamboo charcoal blend of clothing that is both functional as well as eco-friendly. But while Zoic wants to get you properly outfitted, they also want to help you hid the road and the trails with the latest biking information for your locale....
We’ve devoted plenty to pixel space to the issue of Nature Deficit Disorder (see sthe links at the end of this post.) But words are easy, action is harder. So it great to see Backpacker Magazine has announced it’s going again with their Get Out More Tour (for the ninth time). This interactive mobile media and education tour is designed to “encourage participation in active outdoor pursuits.” As Backpacker Editor-in-Chief Jon Dorn puts it, “Through the Tour we are able to visit readers in their own backyards and offer quality, first hand experiences.”
And that what we kids and grown ups alike all need. Dust, rain, sunsets, dirt, bugs, sun-on-the-back, wind-in-the-hair, sand-between-toes, saltwater-in-the-eyes, mountains, owls hooting, beaches, deserts, wildflowers, companions, campfires, waterfalls ... When we mix with nature, we more readily remember that we are of nature too, and to hurt one, wounds the other....
Image via: Flickr
More teams than just the Boston Celtics will be going green this season, as next week the National Basketball Association (NBA) plans to tip off its first ever NBA Green Week 2009. Fans will be treated to green giveaways, the chance to win 40 autographed basketballs made from 40% recycled materials, as well as find out more about what their favorite teams are doing to go green.
Now in its second year, the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) Carbon Neutral Challenge program is getting more than 420 hockey pros to sign up to commit to making substantial changes to their carbon footprint. Just who is taking part? Keep reading....
Photos: Klättermusen
Klättermusen are having a busy March, being an environmentally active manufacturer of outdoor clothing and equipment. At the start of the month they launched their recycling programme, dubbed rECOver. From now on Klättermusen products will bear a small label indicating the value that product has if returned to a Klättermusen stockist. Customers will be refunded up to depending on the product. Some of the products will be processed to make recycled materials, whilst others will be repaired and donated to charity. A very commendable self imposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) program for a small Swedish company.
Klättermusen have been out winning awards this month too, and not strictly speaking for the above program. This particular win involves another equally pioneering endeavour: making packs from old fishing nets and carpets!...
Photos: The North Face
Previously we made mention of all the back-of-house eco initiatives, that outdoor icon The North Face were pursuing. At the time those endeavours hadn’t really percolated through to their product line. However, we've noticed they rectified that situation....
Photo via: Seattle Sports
This month I was given the pleasure of putting one of Seattle Sports new solar/crank-powered radio and iPod speaker to the test. Let's see how it stacked up to a few of its competitors...
...
Image via: Ultimate Boarder/Youtube
Folks in SoCal love their sun and they love their action adventure (extreme) sports. With all these folks congregating in one spot for competitions, it was only a matter of time before they also decided to clean up their act at the triathalon of board sports. This year, the gang at Ultimate Boarder has implemented a few new additions to increase recycling and is even offering you discounts to get you psyched. Keep reading for more on how you can score big at Ultimate Boarder. ...
Not to suggest that Nau are feeling depressed at all, just that after sticking very tightly to a palette of earth tones, they have now infused their line with a variety of strong blue hues. And they also go for gold with a new ochre colour. Nau craft clothing only from high spec environmentally benign materials. Their styling strives to bridge the divide between active outdoor pursuits and urban life. All the while pushing the envelope of apparel design.
For example, this northern Spring they offer a three layer waterproof/breathable jacket in a stretchy knitted recycled polyester. And there are reversible shirts of super fine organic cotton -- wear stripes one day and a block colour the next (two shirts for the price of one.) Fine gauge merino wool knit is fashioned into polo shirts and skirts. While on skirts, one product that has my brow wrinkled: a waterproof/breathable skirt? In an above-the-knee length? Maybe if I was a woman I might fathom the need. More pix below....
GoLite is the brand name of a line of backpacking gear designed to to take a weight off one’s back. But it’s also a philosophy that the company have progressively been embracing to ensure their own company operations and their product go lightly on the planet. And it recently announced that their load is going to be further lightened.
For the past two years GoLite have offset 100% of its estimated greenhouse gas emissions from corporate travel, office energy use, product shipping and print production, via NativeEnergy. This will continue for 2009. But in 2010 they’ll up the ante to include materials and product manufacturing under their 100% “carbon neutrality” for all of their operations. As admirable as these steps are, we know that carbon offsetting is the ‘tailpipe’ end of how a business can go green. So it’s pleasing to note GoLite are doing much more besides....
Covering the upcoming merino summer wool collection from Ibex the other day brought to mind Finisterre and their merino wool range. This small, award winning, British company from Cornwall, make technical apparel for surfers. Not so much for when they are gliding about on waves, but when forced to hang about on terra firma. It is a tightly focussed line, (with a broader appeal than just to waxheads), but one infused with a strong environmental and social conscience.
Aside from making waterproofs that don’t need coatings or membranes and insulated garments with recycled polyester shells, the team at Finisterre have taken to merino wool with gusto, offering some fabrications not readily seen elsewhere [*]....
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 07.10.09
Photo from 
We recently made mention of outdoor footwear company, Merrell, and their continuing campaign to get folk outside, in that instance to the 
Image via: Getty Images.
Fishing itself seems so benign (other than killing fish), with just you and mother nature standing idly by for hours on end. What could be wrong with that? Well, all of those lures add up to 25 million pounds of lures left at the bottom of waterways every year. Tinkerer and fisherman Ben Hobbins has a better idea, reports 
We only started writing about END Footwear a year ago. They didn’t even have retail product at that stage. Their Environmentally Neutral Design(ed) running shoes and boots eventually debuted in August 2008. Now they’ve just announced the company has been purchased by another Oregon based footwear company 
When I first started talking with Graham in mid 2004 about his embryonic TreeHugger web concept, I expressed some reservation about how long we could keep the project going. I figured that, at our then rate of 6 posts a day, we’d run out of eco design products in abut 4 months. Boy, was I wrong. And deliriously happy to have been so.
Here we are five years on, and just yesterday alone we published a ginormous 43 posts. Admittedly not all eco-design related. But still. The growth in products that consider their environmental and social impact has simply gone ballistic in the past few years. New eco start-ups continue to appear at a phenomenal rate of knots. And here is yet one more.
A British based surf company, Mocean, making surfboard bags from 
Photo: Mickey Smith for Rip Curl
Whoops, we missed the UK launch of Rip Curl’s National Wetsuit Amnesty and 
Remember the British technical surfwear company, Finisterre, whom we found were making some really cool gear with innovative knits of 
What can we say, we love Nau. And as our longtime readers know, we’ve been following the company through their 
Recently I penned a scathing post about a move by the USDA to designate PVC as “
Nemo Equipment and their ambition to make 
Images via: 
We’ve devoted plenty to pixel space to the issue of Nature Deficit Disorder (see sthe links at the end of this post.) But words are easy, action is harder. So it great to see 
Image via: 
Photos: Klättermusen
Klättermusen are having a busy March, being an environmentally active manufacturer of outdoor clothing and equipment. At the start of the month they launched their recycling programme, dubbed 
Photos: The North Face
Previously we made mention of all the back-of-house eco initiatives, that outdoor icon 
Photo via: Seattle Sports
This month I was given the pleasure of putting one of 
Not to suggest that Nau are feeling depressed at all, just that after sticking very tightly to a palette of earth tones, they have now infused their line with a variety of strong blue hues. And they also go for gold with a new ochre colour. Nau craft clothing only from high spec environmentally benign materials. Their styling strives to bridge the divide between active outdoor pursuits and urban life. All the while pushing the envelope of apparel design.
For example, this northern Spring they offer a three layer waterproof/breathable jacket in a stretchy knitted recycled polyester. And there are reversible shirts of super fine organic cotton -- wear stripes one day and a block colour the next (two shirts for the price of one.) Fine gauge merino wool knit is fashioned into polo shirts and skirts. While on skirts, one product that has my brow wrinkled: a waterproof/breathable skirt? In an above-the-knee length? Maybe if I was a woman I might fathom the need. More pix below....
GoLite is the brand name of a line of backpacking gear designed to to take a weight off one’s back. But it’s also a philosophy that the company have progressively been embracing to ensure their own company operations and their product 
Covering the upcoming merino summer wool collection from 
