Earth Day 2008
April 22nd, 2008 by Sarah Hubbard
Food for thought…
1% For the Planet
Posted in Uncategorized
5 Responses
Leave a Comment
Popular Posts
What You Think
- David on Looking Back – A winter on the road
- GOrSKIer on Lay off me, I’m starving!
- ieatbagelsdaily aka mgetz on Lay off me, I’m starving!
- Wogo on Earth Day 2008
Chairlift: A Favorite Vid
Denver Climbing League: The Girls
Gelande Quaffing: It's Getting Serious
Bailey Needs a Snorkel
Condorman Lives!
A Great Day of Bouldering
More from the Freedom Riders
The Sublimation Experiment
Powder Whoring
Interesting that you would post this considering that Cloudveil is not even a member of 1% For The Planet. 1% For The Tetons is not the same thing. Get on board Cloudveil and start giving back to the organizations that support the places we all love, and not just the local ones.
Cloudveil is a member of The Conservation Alliance which provides two rounds of funding annually for grass roots groups in the US and Canada (www.conservationalliance.com). The first round of grants for the 2008 calendar year just went out and 17 organizations received $450,000 in grants. Both of the groups that Cloudveil put on the ballot for the nomination process received grants of $30,000. One was GYC to help fight the ongoing proliferation of gas and oil drilling in the Jonah Field and Pinedale anticline and to help protect the Wyoming Range from further development. The other grantee was TU Alaska to try and stop the development of a massive copper/gold mine at the headwaters of some of the finest salmon and trout waters in North America (http://www.thisisfly.com/?l=698) Give the link a second to load.
The Conservation Alliance allows us to do way more by pooling our dollars with like minded outdoor companies than we could do alone. Same overall goal as 1%, with a slightly different way of going about it which worked better for Cloudveil at the time.
1% For The Tetons is the exact same thing on a local scale and we’re proud to be members through our local retail store. I’m sure the grantees that receive money in our area are happy to receive the dollars regardless of which group it comes from.
Picking between the groups we support isn’t a competition. Regardless of us not being a member of 1% For The Planet, we applaud their efforts, and some day we hope to be a member as well. Giving air time to anybody supporting our ultimate goals of preserving open space isn’t something we stop to consider whether or not we’re a member of. We’re not members of the American Cancer Society, but still thought it would be useful to post the BPA use in drinking containers yesterday.
I think joing the Conservation Alliance and participating in 1% for the Tetons is a great start. However, cutting a check to join an association of like minded outdoor companies doesn’t make you green. One example that comes to mind is that Cloudveil sends out the same catalog with a different cover shot. I feel that the money and resources used on sending essentially the same catalog could be used more efficiently. If Cloudveil is doing more for the environment than it appears, post it and let us know. I don’t remember seeing a post on either one of the projects Cloudveil nominated for a grant. I would love to hear about them and the progress they are making.
Thanks,
Matt
I’d like to hear about the greenness of Cloudveil itself. What’s the environmental cost of your supply chain and production? It’s nice to hear you guys are supporting efforts to curb energy extraction from the Pinedale area, but have you made any efforts to use less petroleum in your materials, or in the process of getting clothes to consumers? Inquiring greenie gearheads want to know!
Matt,
I’m open and eager for all criticism, comments, and more constructive suggestions as you offer. Please understand - I’m not purporting to be green. At Cloudveil we are taking strides, making changes and evaluating our practices, fully knowledgeable that we have a long way to go. My point was simply that joining the conservation alliance and groups like it allows us to pool resources for a larger impact than we could do solo. We signed up for wind power credits from our local energy provider a couple years ago, and are currently in talks with Pursue Balance, a local non-profit that provides carbon offsets for our building here in town, as well as for employee travel to and from work and corporate travel. On the product front we’ve taken all 100% cotten products and sourced organic cotton, and started using recycled face fabrics for some outerwear pieces, like the Enclosure. We’re also developing more sustainable fabrics in upcoming seasons . Spring 2009 for instance we will have a collection made of Soy.
Your comment on the catalog is well taken. We are taking steps to reduce circulation and move more marketing online . Last year we moved all of our catalog printing to an FSC-certified printer and switched to FSC-certified paper. It’s an additional expense to us to do this, but definitely the responsible thing to do. I also think a point to be considered is that we already mail fewer titles and have dramatically smaller circulation than anyone in the outdoor space, and not even a fraction of the LL Beans and Eddie Bauers of the world. But then, those companies are also taking steps to lessen their impact. I see many companies doing good because they should, not because they have to, and that’s encouraging to me.
We’re moving in the right direction in a lot of areas across the company, but there is - and always will be - more we can do; more we can all do, right?
Great suggestion to have updates on the grants that GYC and TU in Alaska received, and I’ll contact those groups to see if they can do updates on The Mountain Culture periodically to let us all know how those things are going.
Ok, I gotta get to work and quit writing such long comments. Have a good weekend and thanks for the feedback.