Gear / eco front
Clearing the Bar Brands stretch to meet REI’s new sustainability standards before 2020. BY ELIZABETH MILLER
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n April 2018, when REI announced mandatory sustainability standards for the 1,000-plus brands it stocks, many partners felt overwhelmed. But in the year that followed—through webinars, OIA-run sustainability bootcamps, and even one-on-one phone calls—Greg Gausewitz, product sustainability manager for REI, says, “Brands have started to realize that, yes, these are meaningful and impactful standards, but they’re also achievable.” For partners, that’s meant learning the ins and outs of REI’s new requirements about the Higg Index, banned chemicals, fair labor, and animal welfare—as well as looking at aspirational targets around fair trade, bluesign certification, and land stewardship. We checked in with three partners to see how their compliance efforts are coming along.
Barry Barr
Founder of Kavu, a Washington-based apparel and pack company, which attended a sustainability bootcamp held at REI in Seattle
What was your first response to these standards? When I first got that email it was like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” To me the hardest thing on that was the Higg Index, but everything else, we’d already been doing. I came away from the bootcamp like, Boy, we’re really ahead of the game. What’s the most challenging part? Fabric—knowing where it’s woven and dyed. We went all the way back to chemicals for dyeing. Did the fair labor components come as a surprise? We audit [our factories], and we’ve been doing business with most of them for 15, 20 years. We know them. It’s when you’re outsourcing and trying to get cheap stuff that it can get dicey.
Kathleen Lynch
Sourcing assistant at Big Agnes, which is working with REI on a pilot project to add a hardgoods component to the Higg Index What changes will these standards bring to Big Agnes?
The most significant impact is how the standards precipitated a comprehensive internal review of all our materials, in some cases opening us up to new material opportunities that we wouldn’t have known about without this external motivator. Have you needed additional help?
We haven’t hired new staff or consultants. We have strong design and sourcing teams who are in the trenches translating our internal goals and part-
ner commitments into everything we make and how we do business. How difficult has compliance been? This isn’t a tack-on, one-time deal for us. It’s helped us crystallize what matters most to us as a business, and as citizens of this world. And when it’s hard—that’s a good thing. It means we’re finding the levers that will guide us forward.
James Rogers
Director of sustainability with The North Face, which helped craft one of the policies now written into REI’s standards How is adoption going? We didn’t have to make many changes in order to meet the minimum standards. Really, they highlight some of the good work we’re already doing: We helped create the Responsible Down Standard, and we’re increasing the amount of recycled materials and using some organic cotton. Which requirements do you think will be the hardest for the industry to meet? If some brands don’t already have a restricted substances list (RSL) or a manufacturing code of conduct, that might be difficult. How will these standards make a difference? It makes it a lot easier to have conversations with our suppliers. If every brand is saying, “We want to meet these standards,” it makes it clear that this is just part of doing business with the outdoor industry.
Higg Index Explainer / The Higg Index is a sustainability-focused supply-chain self-assessment—an online tool set that guides companies through examining their energy and water use, chemical management, transportation, packaging, labor, and product end-of-life. The Higg scores responses to questions about how products are made, helping brands and retailers assess their impacts and identify places to improve.
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