“People see what you look like before they realise what you are like. So they judge you before they really find out your personality. So you show your personality in what you are wearing.” Such was the insight of ten year old Jessica, who participated in a
Cultures of Consumption research programme, undertaken by London’s Birkbeck College. The study was looking at
‘Children, Fashion and Consumption.’ They concluded that awareness of what is ‘cool’, and what is not, was evident amongst children as young as six. And furthermore that, “logos could be significant in respect of children’s experience of social inclusion or exclusion.”
In short, our patterns of clothing consumption relate to our innate desire to belong, to be accepted by our tribe. Marketers prey on our fear of being left out. Branding can be used to get us to buy more than we need, so that we might continually ‘fit in’, that we might align ourselves with whatever our peers are currently identifying with. ...
Two years ago when Mion footwear won an ecodesign award
we described them as something “you might expect the Jetsons to wear on the weekends.” And we wanted the company to be more overt in their green product design. With their new models they’ve taken that extra step, if you’ll pardon the pun.
For example, their Flood Gate Sandal utilises partially recycled materials. These include a 15% recycled rubber outsole, a 20% recycled EVA midsole and 50% recycled PET (polyester) in the webbing straps. Mion reckon the sandal will perform equally as well fronting up for whitewater rapids, as it will for white knuckled University exams. ...
Thanks to the mild climate of Sydney I luckily spend three quarters of the year wearing shorts. And I try to cycle commute. This results in embarrassing wear points developing where buttocks meet bike seat. I patch my shorts for as long as is feasible (see pic after fold), but sooner or later new shorts are required. So when Nau launched their spring line, including the Confidant Shorts with a reinforced seat the shout went up. Hallelujah! Clothing for the real world. A review of these and other Spring garments after the fold....
Swiss mountaineering company, Mammut, once made hemp climbing ropes. And although that sounds that sounds nostalgically green, you would be hard pressed to convince today’s climbers and alpinists to return to hemp. So how does one make a high tech nylon rope more eco? Mammut’s solution has been to partner with
MyClimate.org to offset the emissions generated in manufacturing and marketing their ropes.
In short, Mammut are funding the construction of 500 solar-powered greenhouses in the Himalayan region of Ladakh. The greenhouses will artificially extend the vegetation period and enable food to be grown locally. They’re say they’re also supporting the construction of 20 small (10 kW) hydroelectric power stations....
Marmot have long been an innovator in the outdoor market. They were one of the first to embrace Gore-tex waterproof/breathable fabric back in the mid 70’s, using it in sleeping bags, apparel and tents. Many years on, they are in the midst of embracing a new materials revolution. This time around its not just performance that gets a look in, but also the planet.
Marmot are using a raft of materials under their ‘Upcycle’ tag. They’ve a new line of daypacks and urban totes from a recycled polyester. Some of their
sleeping bags (as we’ve
noted before) crafted with 100% recycled polyester shell fabrics and a 80% post consumer recycled, hollow core, continuous filament insulation. Fast drying, odour controlling apparel using
Cocona - activated charcoal from ‘waste’ coconut husks. Plus Marmot have even managed to score a coveted green award for an Upcycle garment....
About a year ago,
powerisers provoked a lot of interest among TreeHuggers. Much has happened since then, so here is an update on this extreme mobility enhancement. And a mystery: the Showteam Powerisers Europe. The teaser video, over the fold, promises the premiere of this new powerbocking team on 14 March 2008. ...
Outdoors sports magazines are falling over themselves to establish green credentials, and, we suspect, mostly for all the right reasons. Afterall their readership spend the free time out there in the very natural environment which is under threat. Taking the lead from climbing magazines
Climbing and Urban Climber, and following in the wake of surf mags
Drifter,
Surfers Path,
Surfing and
Surfer comes Backpacker magazine walking its own talk.
After a six month study the mag learnt its annual carbon footprint was over 5 million pounds of CO2, or about 500,000 pounds per issue. Put another way that’s one pound of greenhouse gases released in the atmosphere for each copy of the magazine. So Backpacker implemented some changes....
Brazilian innovation group Let’s EVO and materials developer Fibra Sustainable Design have joined forces to create a sustainable skateboard. We’ve seen green skates before (
Arbor’s and
Sector 9’s are some examples), but besides this one being one of the first to be developed in Latin America, it was built with innovative materials developed by Fibra.
The cover layers are from Papunha Veneer, produced from the waste of the sustainable palm-heart industry. The second layer is a composite formed by 70% natural fibers (jute, malva and curaua) and 30% post-production recycled polypropylene. The natural fibers of this material are also produced on a fair trade model. Finally, the heart of the board is from 3-ply Organic Mosso Bamboo, grown without chemicals and in a sustainable model.
All of these materials are bonded with a vegetable-based adhesive extracted from species like castor oil plant, soy and corn.
Keep reading for more and a close up on how these materials look....
Somehow we missed this last year. Karhu have introduced Paulownia to the construction of their backcountry skis. We’ve blathered on about this timber before (
once,
twice or
thrice,) regarding its application in surfboards, and even in
shelving. As Karhu see it Paulownia is “valued for its reforestation abilities on marginal and contaminated soil, it grows extremely quickly, reaching maturity two- to four-times faster than equivalent hardwoods, making it easy to farm and harvest instead of logging old growth timber. But most of all, its fast growth and large leaf production give it a high carbon sequestration value... .” ...
The other day
Collin noted some of the winners at the
ISPO SportsDesign Awards for EcoDesign. If you didn’t follow the link through you might’ve missed Grown Skis, who picked up the ski equipment category. This young German company is combining traditional carpentry skills with modern ski design to craft a ‘freeride’ (backcounty/off piste) ski of some new fangled material they call wood.
80% of the ski comprises locally grown and sustainable harvested timbers; ash and fir, serving, the company believes, “as a natural sink for atmospheric carbon.” The design allows them to avoid the plastic top sheet, layers of titanium and fibre glass and plastic ABS side walls commonly found in ski construction. Additionally they’ve passed up on the printed foils and varnishes used to deliver the usual garish graphics. Preferring to simply let the grain of the wood tell it’s own story. Although they do allow a single burnt-on logo to ‘brand’ the skis. So to speak....
The scent of spring is in the Northern Hemisphere air and outdoors company want their customers out there enjoying it. So they’ve begun rolling out new tempters. Patagonia have their spring line happening and it includes pieces like these Women’s
Minimalist II Board Shorts, made from 100% recycled polyester and recyclable through their
Common Threads Recycling Program.
Nau have a new recycled polyester garment too. The 2.5 layer
Succinctshell waterproof/breathable jacket that weighs a scant 12.6oz (355g), as well as a rather curious women’s dress, known as the
Chrysalis.
Psst! TreeHugger has been nominated for two Bloggy Awards—Best Topical Weblog and Best Group Weblog. Please vote vote for us us now! (Hint: To find us, scroll toward the bottom of the page.) Thanks!...
TreeHugger has been a fan of
Arbor since they launched a few years ago, designing
snowboards and skateboards out of bamboo and other
sustainable materials. But when we got a sneak peek at their new Slater skateboard, we couldn’t help but take it for a test ride down Main Street. The Slater Series, Arbor’s first signature skate, is designed to honor acclaimed surfer and eight-time world champion Kelly Slater. ...
Just quickly—yet another green surfboard. Details are a bit thin about this line of boards from a French designer, but its looks like they go in for expanded polystyrene (EPS) as having greater longevity and recyclability than standard poly blanks. And it seems like they might also use flax fabric instead of the usual fibreglass skin. This all appears to be bound in place with a 50% bio-based resin. They don’t say what is in their particular resin, but hint at the likes of soy, corn and sugar, and suggest they’re currently testing a 100% bio-based resin for future production.
No doubt folk like
Ocean Green and
Biofoam will have a weather eye on such developments.
::Ecomoana, via a web search. ...
It can't be easy to get a massive 19-ton glass squash court into New York's Grand Central Terminal. And out again. Nor is it simple to host what is tagged as ‘the world's largest spectator Squash event’ over a seven-day (10-16 Jan '08) tournament with squash champions from 13 countries, and all their attendant travel, accommodation, and event lighting, etc. In fact, it all adds up to an estimated 54 tons of greenhouse gases. But that's where
Juice Energy Inc. have partnered with 2008 Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions....
For the several young people on my gift list, this year's must-have brand in outer wear was
The North Face. A fast ascent through REI, EMS, & Dick's rapidly made it obvious why North Face is considered "hot." I too was tempted to try on North Face's light weight jackets. Nice stuff.
Having passed my teen years in the US' "counter culture" era, I still find the "billboarding" of clothing items, a branding practice common to many sport-wear makers, to be completely unacceptable. But, for young people who have grown up with large corporate logos and brand names on nearly everything, including underwear, I could see why North Face has their devotion. And, why other makers seemed to be emulating their designs.
Truthfully, the best selling outer wear in the US, and especially the items that young people love, are made from virgin textiles and films derived from fossil hydrocarbons. Sure, the REI store I visited had a few woolies from New Zealand on the "Clearance" rack; but the sexiest designs that fill most of the floor space are pure petro....
Whilst
Osprey have been bringing their recycled daypacks and messenger bags to market, Mountainsmith has been busy with their line of recycled lumbar pads (as noted in our Christmas
Gift Guide for Outdoor Lovers) and seen above right.
The exterior fabric of the lumbar pads is a 450 denier 100% recycled PET (polyester) fabric, while the interior is a bright coloured lining (so you can find stuff inside) of lighter weight 150 denier PET. Mountainsmith say that between 13 and 16 PET bottles and by the end of 2007 (which is not very far away) they estimate they’ll have saved 1.1 million bottles from landfill. Wow, by my shoddy maths, that’s almost 70,000 recycled lumbar pads being bought.
For 2008 Mountainsmith plan to extend their recycled offerings to include a full 70 litre alpine rucksack, the Phoenix (seen on the left). The company suggest when the pack hits the trail in Spring next year it will be made of 85% recycled materials. It will join the the smaller 30 litre Spire (middle), in a line of, what
Trailspace described as “19 backpacks and daypacks, seven lumbar packs, and four camera bags with recycled content.”
::Mountainsmith, via
::Kirou....
“... disposable boards just aren't going to cut it anymore. Nor are toxic boards made from the same old poisonous soup that has been used since the early ‘60s. By hand-shaping local wood into beautiful high performance surfboards, our goal is to change the very paradigm of choosing a surfboard. Instead of choosing the quick and easy, the cheap and sleazy, the pop-out molded spray-painted cookie cutter foam toy, we want you to think a little. Think about the long-term cost. The environmental cost. The aesthetic cost. The social cost. And then go with the choice that is simply better by nature.” So says Lars Bergström, founder of
42 Surfboards and holder of a PhD in Environmental Science.
42 Surfboards use sustainably harvested wood and abalone (it’s used for the set-in logo, see pic above), with the waste sawdust composted at a local nursery. Their offices use wind power and they are members of both
1% for the Planet" and
The Surfrider Foundation.
But they aren’t the only guys making wooden surfboards. We’ve mentioned a few before, like
Grain,
OloSurfer, as well as
Empress and Tom Wegener Surfboards.
And, of course, there are others we haven’t got around to profiling, such as
Hess,
Pranchas de Surf de Madeira,
Valla,
RaySkin, (middle pic)
Paul Jensen (right pic),
Vintage Wooden Surfboards, to name but a few. ...
Although maybe not quite in the same league as
Berghaus, whom we noted the other week, Craghoppers, is another leading outdoor clothing supplier in the UK that is taking steps to be greener. (And all the more credit to them being a smaller business.) They contend they’ve been the first company in their industry to declare its operations ‘Carbon Neutral’.
Their greenhouse gas emissions were assessed by
The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management. Since the assessment they’ve been reducing carbon output by involving staff in taking the easy steps to save energy, both in the office and at home, part of which includes a paper recycling programme. Where emissions aren’t being reduced, they are 'offset', via
CarbonNeutral projects around the world. These include a wind farm in New Zealand (at one of the few
Gold Standard projects in Oceania, we suspect) and energy efficient light bulbs in Jamaica.
Jim McNamara, the Managing Director at Craghoppers said, "We supply outdoor clothing and therefore are passionate about protecting the environment; it's inherent in our culture. The whole company is behind this commitment and there are lots of small ways in which everyone can get involved in reducing carbon emissions."
A short list of actions that customers can take too is included on their website.
They also promise to produce their printed materials on 100% recycled paper, and ensure that packaging is biodegradable, as well helping little old hedgehogs cross the road!
::Craghoppers, via a web crawl....
Logistics is a hidden aspect of our consumer-based society. We only really relate to goods in a shop or in use. We rarely give any thought to how they get to us. Progressive companies like Patagonia with their
Footprint Chronicles and Nau with their
Grey Matter do open a window on the oft forgotten aspect of product distribution.
Which brings us to REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc) the outdoor gear retail co-operative. When you are trying to service your approximately 1.2 million active co-op members residing east of the Mississippi river it makes sense to have an effective distribution centre nearby. And that doesn’t mean Washington state on the West coast. So REI last month unveiled a new 525,000 square-foot building on 43 acres. It will end up servicing about 40% of the co-op’s stores.
But in order for such a beast to fit their sustainability agenda it has incorporated a few green elements. Prime among these might be the natural wetlands on an additional 12 acres. It provides wildlife habitat and storm water management.
A list of other eco-attributes appears after the fold....
No doubt you’ve seen their quietly spoken adverts on our site and thought, “Nau? What is that all about?” And the question would be a valid one.
For here is a company that hides its light under bushel. Their apparel bears no external logo; their colour palette looks like it was designed for a Ninja wanting to blend in with surroundings, not scream out “look at me!”; they don’t sell through any of the traditional outdoor outlets (only their own ‘webfronts’, where they give you a discount if you don’t take the garments home with you) and their (Flash encumbered) online store. Oh, and they give 5% of your purchase dollars away—to others more in need.
It’s a brow-wrinkling, forehead-scratching way of doing business. Which is the whole point. Nau wants to be
the antithesis of ‘business as usual.’ A green outdoor company that wants to apply their motto of ‘beautiful, sustainable, performance’ to every garment in the range.
“Yeh, yeh,” you might be saying, “Enough of the philosophy, how does their product actually perform?” After the fold we look at their top-of-the-line Alpine jacket, the Asylum....
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