Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Reduce your carbon footprint, live greener and healthier. This special suppliment from the makers of Country Walking and Trail Magazine.
Citation preview
05
MakingGear GreenGear companies are wising up to the environmental impact of their gear – but are walkers buying into the green revolution?
There’s a mountain in Ecuador which is shrinking. At least that’s what it looks like to the people who live and farm on
the slopes of the magnificent Cotocachi (4944m). A hundred years ago the mountain was capped with snow and glaciers, its crystalline peak cutting a brilliant slash into the equatorial blue. Today the snow and ice are gone, and the mountain appears black and shrunken. A lake that lies in the Cotocachi foothills has withered too. Once buoyed by melting glaciers, the water is now draining away, leaving the people subsistence farming, facing possible drought and in competition for what little water there is left.
It was with this stark image that Nick Brown (above), inventor of Nikwax and member of the European Outdoor Group Association for
Conservation, opened his speech at Innovation for Extremes 08, a conference exploring the outdoor industry and climate change.
The conference, held at Lancaster University in April 2008, was notable for being the first time that leading figures in the gear industry collectively acknowledged an inherent irony in their businesses: that the manufacture and distribution of outdoor gear contributes to climate change, which damages the very environment the gear is designed to help people enjoy.
As Frank Bennett, chairman of the umbrella group, the Outdoor Industries Association (OIA), said: “We are having to review fundamental aspects of the way we make outdoor kit and conduct business in general, reflecting the need to reduce the impact on the planet of what we manufacture and what we do.”
05
MakingGear GreenGear companies are wising up to the environmental impact of their gear – but are walkers buying into the green revolution?
There’s a mountain in Ecuador which is shrinking. At least that’s what it looks like to the people who live and farm on
the slopes of the magnificent Cotocachi (4944m). A hundred years ago the mountain was capped with snow and glaciers, its crystalline peak cutting a brilliant slash into the equatorial blue. Today the snow and ice are gone, and the mountain appears black and shrunken. A lake that lies in the Cotocachi foothills has withered too. Once buoyed by melting glaciers, the water is now draining away, leaving the people subsistence farming, facing possible drought and in competition for what little water there is left.
It was with this stark image that Nick Brown (above), inventor of Nikwax and member of the European Outdoor Group Association for
Conservation, opened his speech at Innovation for Extremes 08, a conference exploring the outdoor industry and climate change.
The conference, held at Lancaster University in April 2008, was notable for being the first time that leading figures in the gear industry collectively acknowledged an inherent irony in their businesses: that the manufacture and distribution of outdoor gear contributes to climate change, which damages the very environment the gear is designed to help people enjoy.
As Frank Bennett, chairman of the umbrella group, the Outdoor Industries Association (OIA), said: “We are having to review fundamental aspects of the way we make outdoor kit and conduct business in general, reflecting the need to reduce the impact on the planet of what we manufacture and what we do.”
05
MakingGear GreenGear companies are wising up to the environmental impact of their gear – but are walkers buying into the green revolution?
There’s a mountain in Ecuador which is shrinking. At least that’s what it looks like to the people who live and farm on
the slopes of the magnificent Cotocachi (4944m). A hundred years ago the mountain was capped with snow and glaciers, its crystalline peak cutting a brilliant slash into the equatorial blue. Today the snow and ice are gone, and the mountain appears black and shrunken. A lake that lies in the Cotocachi foothills has withered too. Once buoyed by melting glaciers, the water is now draining away, leaving the people subsistence farming, facing possible drought and in competition for what little water there is left.
It was with this stark image that Nick Brown (above), inventor of Nikwax and member of the European Outdoor Group Association for
Conservation, opened his speech at Innovation for Extremes 08, a conference exploring the outdoor industry and climate change.
The conference, held at Lancaster University in April 2008, was notable for being the first time that leading figures in the gear industry collectively acknowledged an inherent irony in their businesses: that the manufacture and distribution of outdoor gear contributes to climate change, which damages the very environment the gear is designed to help people enjoy.
As Frank Bennett, chairman of the umbrella group, the Outdoor Industries Association (OIA), said: “We are having to review fundamental aspects of the way we make outdoor kit and conduct business in general, reflecting the need to reduce the impact on the planet of what we manufacture and what we do.”
05
MakingGear GreenGear companies are wising up to the environmental impact of their gear – but are walkers buying into the green revolution?
There’s a mountain in Ecuador which is shrinking. At least that’s what it looks like to the people who live and farm on
the slopes of the magnificent Cotocachi (4944m). A hundred years ago the mountain was capped with snow and glaciers, its crystalline peak cutting a brilliant slash into the equatorial blue. Today the snow and ice are gone, and the mountain appears black and shrunken. A lake that lies in the Cotocachi foothills has withered too. Once buoyed by melting glaciers, the water is now draining away, leaving the people subsistence farming, facing possible drought and in competition for what little water there is left.
It was with this stark image that Nick Brown (above), inventor of Nikwax and member of the European Outdoor Group Association for
Conservation, opened his speech at Innovation for Extremes 08, a conference exploring the outdoor industry and climate change.
The conference, held at Lancaster University in April 2008, was notable for being the first time that leading figures in the gear industry collectively acknowledged an inherent irony in their businesses: that the manufacture and distribution of outdoor gear contributes to climate change, which damages the very environment the gear is designed to help people enjoy.
As Frank Bennett, chairman of the umbrella group, the Outdoor Industries Association (OIA), said: “We are having to review fundamental aspects of the way we make outdoor kit and conduct business in general, reflecting the need to reduce the impact on the planet of what we manufacture and what we do.”
06
But where do businesses begin? As with all industries, environmental considerations cut through the outdoor gear trade all the way from the production of the raw materials to the disposal of the product at the end of its life. If it’s not the vast quantities of water needed to grow cottons, it’s the energy consumed in producing the fabrics. If it’s not the use of petrochemicals to manufacture polyester, it’s the toxic chemicals used in the dyes. Then there’s the carbon produced during the making of the gear, the energy used to ship it from factory to outlets across the world, the plastics used in labels and packaging, and the energy gobbled up in advertising and sales. And finally, at the end of it all, there’s all that secondhand, non-biodegradable clobber that gets cast into landfill, often long before it’s reached the end of its useful life.
And yet Nick Brown says the task of becoming more environmentally friendly is not as daunting as it first seems. “The important place to start is by measuring what you do,” he
explains. “You start looking at what your energy output is, relative to what you produce, and then ask yourself where savings might be made. Once you start looking you realise there’s a huge amount of waste that can be avoided.”
Nikwax and Páramo had cut their CO2 output from 12.5 tonnes to 2 tonnes a year simply by looking rigorously at where savings could be made, he said.
Many companies are making a start at this process, but others try to cut
corners in a way that Nick Brown calls ‘discouraging’. Mark Held, secretary general of the European Outdoor Group (EOG), explains. “Over 80 per cent of UK companies commit some form of ‘green washing’, where a product is sold as being more eco-friendly than it truly is,” he says.
It’s the kind of practice that paints a grim picture of an industry plagued by cynical marketing, rampant capitalism and abject wastefulness. But there are also stories of brilliant innovation where an environmental conscience and a little creative thinking are transforming the way companies work.
US company Patagonia is widely recognised as the world’s most environmentally active outdoor brand. Members of Bluesign, 1% for the Planet and the EOG Association for Conservation, Patagonia also issues grants to environmental projects and have given a total of $32 million to more than 1,000 organisations. Much of their gear is made from recycled polyester, their distribution centres and offices are run on solar energy, and they are currently involved in a campaign to turn the region of Patagonia – in southern Argentina and Chile – into a national park.
Here in the UK, fabric manufacturer Polartec was the first
Eco-fabrics: the ones to watch
Recycled polyester Recyclable polyester
Over 80 per cent of UK companies commit some form of ‘green washing’ where a product is sold as being more eco-friendly than it truly is.
06
But where do businesses begin? As with all industries, environmental considerations cut through the outdoor gear trade all the way from the production of the raw materials to the disposal of the product at the end of its life. If it’s not the vast quantities of water needed to grow cottons, it’s the energy consumed in producing the fabrics. If it’s not the use of petrochemicals to manufacture polyester, it’s the toxic chemicals used in the dyes. Then there’s the carbon produced during the making of the gear, the energy used to ship it from factory to outlets across the world, the plastics used in labels and packaging, and the energy gobbled up in advertising and sales. And finally, at the end of it all, there’s all that secondhand, non-biodegradable clobber that gets cast into landfill, often long before it’s reached the end of its useful life.
And yet Nick Brown says the task of becoming more environmentally friendly is not as daunting as it first seems. “The important place to start is by measuring what you do,” he
explains. “You start looking at what your energy output is, relative to what you produce, and then ask yourself where savings might be made. Once you start looking you realise there’s a huge amount of waste that can be avoided.”
Nikwax and Páramo had cut their CO2 output from 12.5 tonnes to 2 tonnes a year simply by looking rigorously at where savings could be made, he said.
Many companies are making a start at this process, but others try to cut
corners in a way that Nick Brown calls ‘discouraging’. Mark Held, secretary general of the European Outdoor Group (EOG), explains. “Over 80 per cent of UK companies commit some form of ‘green washing’, where a product is sold as being more eco-friendly than it truly is,” he says.
It’s the kind of practice that paints a grim picture of an industry plagued by cynical marketing, rampant capitalism and abject wastefulness. But there are also stories of brilliant innovation where an environmental conscience and a little creative thinking are transforming the way companies work.
US company Patagonia is widely recognised as the world’s most environmentally active outdoor brand. Members of Bluesign, 1% for the Planet and the EOG Association for Conservation, Patagonia also issues grants to environmental projects and have given a total of $32 million to more than 1,000 organisations. Much of their gear is made from recycled polyester, their distribution centres and offices are run on solar energy, and they are currently involved in a campaign to turn the region of Patagonia – in southern Argentina and Chile – into a national park.
Here in the UK, fabric manufacturer Polartec was the first
Eco-fabrics: the ones to watch
Recycled polyester Recyclable polyester
Over 80 per cent of UK companies commit some form of ‘green washing’ where a product is sold as being more eco-friendly than it truly is.
Why switch to Ecotricity?
So what can consumers do?
Ecotricity: Turning Bills into Windmills
Being in the wilderness increases
our awareness of how much we have
to lose.
08
10
won’t be able to make them.”But there is some evidence that
attitudes are changing. “Last summer the OIA asked
10,000 outdoor enthusiasts about their attitudes to the environment,” says Lines. “Over two thirds of respondents said they always try to buy environmentally friendly products. Although most pointed out that eco-gear is more expensive than standard product, 51 per cent claimed they would be willing to pay more for it. If this is reflected in purchasing patterns, then outdoor companies have even more reason to increase their focus on developing environmentally friendly kit.”
And perhaps in another respect, the outdoor industry can also be a force for good.
“We have a strong role to play because we encourage people to have an emotional response to the environment,” says Nick Brown. “If people love something, then they are more likely to look after it. Perhaps encouraging people into the wilderness isn’t the best thing in terms of conservation, but that is balanced by the emotional response people have to that wilderness. This response increases people’s awareness of how much we have to lose and how important it is to protect it. Emotion can be a great motivator.”
And so, in spite of everything, perhaps we should take heart. Let’s all remember what is at stake,
Eco-labels: the ones to watch
shop accordingly – that is buying only what we need and being prepared to spend more on eco-friendly gear – and hope the gear industry follows suit. It probably won’t bring the snow back to Cotocachi, but it might help save other mountains from a similar fate.
Bluesign
n
GOTS Organic Certification
n
OEKO-TEX 100 standard
n
Eco Circle
n
1% For The Planet
n
Made in the UK
10
won’t be able to make them.”But there is some evidence that
attitudes are changing. “Last summer the OIA asked
10,000 outdoor enthusiasts about their attitudes to the environment,” says Lines. “Over two thirds of respondents said they always try to buy environmentally friendly products. Although most pointed out that eco-gear is more expensive than standard product, 51 per cent claimed they would be willing to pay more for it. If this is reflected in purchasing patterns, then outdoor companies have even more reason to increase their focus on developing environmentally friendly kit.”
And perhaps in another respect, the outdoor industry can also be a force for good.
“We have a strong role to play because we encourage people to have an emotional response to the environment,” says Nick Brown. “If people love something, then they are more likely to look after it. Perhaps encouraging people into the wilderness isn’t the best thing in terms of conservation, but that is balanced by the emotional response people have to that wilderness. This response increases people’s awareness of how much we have to lose and how important it is to protect it. Emotion can be a great motivator.”
And so, in spite of everything, perhaps we should take heart. Let’s all remember what is at stake,
Eco-labels: the ones to watch
shop accordingly – that is buying only what we need and being prepared to spend more on eco-friendly gear – and hope the gear industry follows suit. It probably won’t bring the snow back to Cotocachi, but it might help save other mountains from a similar fate.
Bluesign
n
GOTS Organic Certification
n
OEKO-TEX 100 standard
n
Eco Circle
n
1% For The Planet
n
Made in the UK
Kit List
Eco-friendly gear – what’s not to smile about?
that doesn’t cost the earth
Timberland Hokkaido £85
GreenVee Dalesway £125
Vegetarian Shoes Veggie Trekker £115
Keen Newport Hemp Sandal £65
Teva Keagan Canvas £50
Teko Light Hiking Sock £11
Wynnster Light Walking Sock £11.50
Sprayway Toast gilet £50
Patagonia Shelterstone waterproof jacket £240
Montane Sabretooth soft shell £150
Berghaus Activity Jacket £60
Tog 24 Vaughan jacket £80
Sprayway Solar Half Zip fleece jacket £55
Footwear
Jackets
Fleeces
Kit List
Eco-friendly gear – what’s not to smile about?
that doesn’t cost the earth
Timberland Hokkaido £85
GreenVee Dalesway £125
Vegetarian Shoes Veggie Trekker £115
Keen Newport Hemp Sandal £65
Teva Keagan Canvas £50
Teko Light Hiking Sock £11
Wynnster Light Walking Sock £11.50
Sprayway Toast gilet £50
Patagonia Shelterstone waterproof jacket £240
Montane Sabretooth soft shell £150
Berghaus Activity Jacket £60
Tog 24 Vaughan jacket £80
Sprayway Solar Half Zip fleece jacket £55
Footwear
Jackets
Fleeces
19
...your impact on the environment P21
...and repair for longer-lasting kit P23
...your gear and give it a second life P25
21
Buy a forest!
Sleep easy
Bottle it!
Ecofact
Ecofact
Ecofact
Ecofact
Ecofact
Ecofact
Ecofact
Pack it in!
Lake DistrictStartFinishGet there
MapTerrain
Walk this way
CornwallStartFinishGet there
MapTerrain
Walk this way
Southern UplandsStart/finishGet there
MapTerrainWalk this way
Brecon BeaconsStartFinishGet there
MapTerrain
Walk this way
North-west HighlandsStartFinishGet there
MapTerrain
Walk this way
Yorkshire DalesStartFinishGet there
MapTerrain
Walk this way
The small print
Wythmoor Camping Barn, near Kendal, Lake DistrictWhat?
How green?
Why here?
What’s the damage?Contact
Deepdale, Burnham Deepdale, North NorfolkWhat?
How green?
Why here?
What’s the damage?
Contact
The Cross, Kingussie, Inverness-shireWhat?
How green?
Why here?
What’s the damage?
Contact
Wythmoor Camping Barn, near Kendal, Lake DistrictWhat?
How green?
Why here?
What’s the damage?Contact
Deepdale, Burnham Deepdale, North NorfolkWhat?
How green?
Why here?
What’s the damage?
Contact
The Cross, Kingussie, Inverness-shireWhat?
How green?
Why here?
What’s the damage?
Contact
