Tag: sustainability

Patagonia Offers Transparency with Supply Chain Map

Patagonia is one of those companies that’s ahead of the competitor pack. Many of the clothes and other merchandise it produces is made from recycled and sustainable materials. And now Patagonia is revealing details about where its garments and other merchandise is manufactured. The Footprint Chronicles is a Google Maps listing of the company’s supply chain including textile mills and factories. You can see how many people work at each location, what languages they speak on the job, and what merchandise, such as baselayer or accessories, is produced at each location.

Nike recently put together a sustainability site with a similar goal of providing information for customers and investors.

Patagonia Official Website
Patagonia The Footprint Chronicles
[via TriplePundit: Patagonia Maps Out Its Supply Chain For Even More Transparency]

Nike Moves Toward Sustainability with Collaborative Design Tool

Expect to see more environmental, sustainable products from Nike and hopefully the industry. The company just released its Environmental Apparel Design Tool to foster collaboration between companies, and maximize the use of sustainable materials and processes.

The Environmental Design Tool is an open source tool based on Nike’s Considered Design Index. This is seven years in the making and the company has made a $6 million investment in the software-based system to help designers make real time choices that decrease environmental impact in their process. Continue reading Nike Moves Toward Sustainability with Collaborative Design Tool

The Latest Organic: Bicycles

Bamboo tubes and grips are accented by green or any other color of choice.

Steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, titanium, just a few metals and alloys that are used to make bikes. Add bamboo to the list. The Dylan Bamboo Bicycle from Organic Bikes uses the strong and sustainable wood for its tubing, and recycled alloy for frame lugs and chainstay tubing. Available in five sizes XS to XL, the bike is customized to your color and style specifications including a water bottle cage made from bamboo.

The bamboo is said to absorb some of the bumps in the road better than alloy and metal frames, producing a more comfortable ride. The Dylan is a three-speed cycle. Organic Bikes plans to release town bikes and road bike frames in the future. Committed to sustainability, the company also makes biodegradable water bottles as well as clothing and messenger bags made from recycled materials.

Organic Bikes Dylan

Sustainability Makes The North Face Top a Bonus

The North Face Women's El Cap Temple 1/4 top.
The North Face and Polartec boost recycled materials and function.

Polartec’s Women’s El Cap Temple 1/4 Zip top from The North Face is made from sustainable resources. Part of the fleece manufacturer’s eco-engineering line, it contains a minimum of 50 percent recycled content, and both companies continue to push to raise the bar on post-consumer materials. Why opt for a garment with such a high content of reused materials? Each shirt saves 6.6 lbs in C02 emissions, and 0.17 gallons of gas.

The earth conscious gear has its benefits. The pique knit is soft on the skin. It carries an ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of 30. The El Cap Temple wicks moisture in a number of ways. It draws sweat and moisture away from skin while setting up a dry zone next to the skin. Moisture wicked to the surface is spread across the outer layer of the garment, and continues to make the top breathable. Wicking is crucial in a long sleeve garment, especially since it’s likely to act as a base layer for outside workouts.

The North Face’s Women’s El Cap Temple 1/4 Zip shirt is appropriate for a base layer in outdoor workouts over the winter. It’s also a great transitional top in those days nice enough to go out for a run, but not quite nice enough for short sleeves. The dual-layer fabric provides a degree of wind blocking, an important factor in transitional weather.