Eco Working Group

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Eco Working Group

• November 2008

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Agenda

• OIA Overview
• Eco Working Group
• The Green Landscape
• Problem to Be Solved
• Member Overview
• Group History
• Work Product to Date
• Framework and Relevance
• Next Steps of Eco Index
• QA

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Outdoor Industry Association

• Mission To ensure the growth and success of the
  outdoor industry
• Founded in 1989
• Premier trade association for active outdoor
  recreation
• Represents over 4000 manufacturers, distributors,
  suppliers, sales representatives and retailers in
  the outdoor industry
• Govt. Affairs, Research, Education, Best Business
  Practices, Standards,Youth Outreach,

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The Green Landscape

• Dozens of eco labels introduced
• all with varying degrees of criteria
• Applications to the US Patent Office with the
  word "green" in it more than doubled from 2006 to
  2007, from 1,100 to 2,400
• Consumers have become increasingly wary, of
  green products
• Green Fatigue has set in for some.

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The Green Landscape

• The mass media is driving product environmental
  safety agenda The US government is responding
• FTC Green regulations being revised one year
  earlier than planned
• Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act
  dramatic reaction to public opinion

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The Green Landscape

• Evidence suggests consumers believe the outdoor
  industry is already green
• The Green Halo Effect
• Greenwashing2
• Hidden Trade-off
• No proof
• Vagueness
• Irrelevance
• Lesser of Two Evils
• Fibbing

Source 2TerraChoice Environmental Marketing
Study
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The Green Landscape

• What Does Sustainability Mean to Consumers?
• Just over 54 of consumers claim familiarity with
  the term and most cannot define it upon probing.
• Consumers resonate with the values associated
  with sustainability, not with the term itself

Source 1The Hartman Group 2007
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The Problem Defined

• We lack of a common, comprehensive, cross
  industry way to compare products from an
  environmentally considered perspective.
• As a result
• Specific claims on a products relative
  greennesswhether real or hypeis less
  effective and too often not effective for it
  lacks context with best practices.
• Consumers are confused and becoming increasingly
  skeptical
• We are not making significant enough progress on
  reducing our products environmental footprint

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Member Overview

• 125 Registered members on site/ 109 Individual
  Businesses
• 65 Supplier Manufacturer
• 19 Supplier
• 15 Manufacturer- Apparel
• 14 Manufacturer- Equipment
• 10 Manufacturer- Footwear
• 6 Manufacturer- Apparel, equipment
• 8 Retailers Reps
• 5 Retailer-large format
• 2 Retailers- small format
• 2 Rep
• 27 Other
• 11 Consultants
• 7 Media
• 6 CSR Consultants

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Member Overview

• 40 Voting Members
• 25 Supplier
• 15 Manufacturer- Apparel
• 15 Manufacturer- Apparel Equipment
• 15 Manufacturer- Equipment
• 15 Manufacturer- Footwear
• 10 Rep (1) or Other
• 5 Retailer-large format

3M, Backpacker Magazine, Big Agnes, Black Diamond
Equipment, Brooks Sports, Cascade Designs Inc,
Chaco, Inc./ULU Boots, Cocona, Dupont Sorona,
Egan Associates LLC, ExOfficio, Golite,
Invista/Cordura, Keen, Inc., Levi Strauss Co.,
Polartec, Marmot, Merrell Footwear / Wolverine,
Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), Mountain
Hardwear, Inc., Nau, New Balance Athletic Shoe,
Inc., Nikwax North America, Outdoor Research,
Pacific Market International/Stanley, Pacific
Outdoor Equipment, Patagonia, Inc., Concurrent
Product Dev, Petzl, praNa, Primaloft/Albany
International, REI, Sierra Designs, Sierra
Magazine, Teko Socks, The North Face, The
Timberland Co., Verde PR Consulting, W. L.
Gore, YKK
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EWG Governance

• Executive Committee
• 6 Eco Group Voting Members
• Make process and planning decisions
• OIA Staff Board representative
• Connect to the trade organization
• Convening Nonprofit Zero Waste Alliance
• Process consistency, project management,
  stakeholder engagement
• Government US EPA
• A local and federal perspective on the EC
• Advisors and Stakeholders
• NGOs, Academia, other
• Task Force Groups
• Formed for finite period and deliverables
• Any member can participate

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OIA Role
OIA facilitates the development, housing and
communication of voluntary standards and best
practices specific to the outdoor industry by

• Providing financial support
• Producing, distributing and communicating all
  open source work product (standards documents,
  toolkits, guidelines, etc) to industry
• Managing members, participation fees and renewal
  process
• Managing and distributing all funds on behalf of
  the working groups
• Managing and maintaining member and
  communications databases
• Managing all contractors and contracts on behalf
  of group
• Managing and developing collaborative
  relationships with other associations

• Assisting in outside funder and grant recruitment
• Facilitating all working group communications to
  industry and other stakeholders
• Provide liaison to media and public relations
  support
• Helping maintain website
• Providing event logistics, planning and support,
  RSVPs and communications
• Providing conference call support
• Providing legal advisement
• Legislative support monitoring

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History Work Product to Date
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Vision and Mission

• Vision We believe in a world where we live,
  recreate and do business in harmony with our
  land, air, water and communities.  We are
  committed to finding solutions that will lead to
  positive and measurable societal change,
  significantly improve our environmental footprint
  and protect our valuable earth for future
  generations.
• Mission The Eco Working Group will take a
  leadership role to develop environmental impact
  evaluation tools, programs, education and
  communication to stakeholders and consumers that
  will direct product life cycle and informed
  purchasing decisions.

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Collaborative Web Site

• www.oia-eco.org
• user visitor
• password visitor

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Label or Index?

• Label
• Consumer Facing
• Designates the attainment of a certain threshold
  or level of performance
• Must have a solid set of criteria and
  certification scheme to be credible
• Examples
• Oeko Tex
• GOTS
• Bluesign
• Energy Star

• Index
• Design Focused
• Serves as a toolkit for measuring and reducing
  impact
• Should contain right mix of science and values to
  balance scorecarding
• Examples
• Nike Considered
• Timberland Green Index
• EPEAT

79 Affirmative
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Product Eco Strategy - Where to Start?
Develop the means to quantify product
environmental activities
Science Project
X
OIA Eco Index
Telling a message and also finding out what
people think and care about
Addressing an environmental issue with a specific
solution
Greenwashing
Mis-directed Zeal
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Developing the Framework

• Framework is the road map for developing the
  index
• Provides context for what matters to be measured
• a snapshot of where you are, how are you doing,
  and where can you improve
• Task force convened
• Greg Scott MEC
• Jill Dumain Patagonia
• Vanessa Margolis Nike
• Pete Girard - Timberland
• Eric Brody Nau
• Multiple iterations of the model to arrive at
  current version, 2.5.1
• Not yet final, may still evolve, but close
• Provides backbone for a tool-kit to measure and
  improve
• Great step forward for that common language

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v2.5.1 The Eco Index Framework
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v2.5.1 The Eco Index Framework
The impacts of increased land use intensity on
biodiversity (i.e. crop rotation versus no crop
rotation).
Impacts causing a significant reduction in
available clean water.
Excess by-products from product creation with no
immediate use (i.e. materials cut-waste).
Impacts related to an area of habitat and the
species that it supports. Species reduction
leading to monoculture.
Chemical impacts related to humans (directly or
indirectly), with the defined hazard and risk of
exposure.
Chemical impacts related to the overall ecosystem
with the defined hazard and risk of exposure.
Related to the negative impacts of climate change
due to increased GHG emissions (Measured in Kg of
CO2 equivalents). Tied to energy consumption.
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v2.5.1 The Eco Index Framework
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v2.5.1 The Eco Index Framework
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v2.5.1 The Eco Index Framework
Packaging requirements for movement of materials
and products within the supply chain.
Movement of materials and product within the
supply chain before shipping to brands.
The true origin from mining, drilling or
farming. The impact of acquiring the rough
feedstock
Turning the raw material into a useable resource
e.g. yarns/textiles metals or composites
The last stage of material preparation before
assembly/ manufacture. Can range from things such
as dyeing-finishing to heat treating or
annodization
The process of turning the materials into actual
products
contains care and feeding including laundering,
as well as general service-ability
The packaging and collateral that makes it to the
consumers hands.
From ex-factory to the consumers hands
Ultimate end of life re-use, recycle or
landfill?
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v2.5.1 The Eco Index Framework
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Packaging as Pilot Test Case
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Desired Outcomes

• Set of Guidelines/Best Management Practices
• Qualitative
• Broad-based
• Educational
• Provides a foundation for future work
• Metrics
• Identification of high priority areas
• Agreement on methodologies for calculating
  metrics
• Could use existing metrics/tools
• Could be used to manage supply chain
• Design Performance Scorecard
• Create common language
• Product development aide

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Next Steps
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How to Get Involved

• View our work at www.oia-eco.org
• Username visitor
• Password visitor
• Join the discussion- get personal username
• Volunteer for a subcommittee
• Become a voting member

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QA
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Thank You

• Ann Obenchain
• Vice President, Member Services Marketing
• Outdoor Industry Association
• aobenchain_at_outdoorindustry.org
• 303-327-3514