I have 2 Edelrid Swift Pro rope, and to be honest, when I bought them, it wasn't because they were bluesign or ecological, I did not even knew it was a possibility. They were just the best rope for my needs. With every rope from Edelrid they provide some documentation on how the rope was created, bluesign process, how to recycle previous rope, etc. This made me aware of the ecological side and this video a little bit more. I will still be looking for the best gear for my specific needs, but ecological aspect will be a close second to the technical one, and yes, I will be ready to pay a bit more for them to be eco-friendly. Maybe WMR could add some filter or create a blog post about eco gear. In any case big kudos for Edelrid for doing what they do, the more I learn about them, the more I like this company.
Thanks Kevin for sharing! I think most everyone looking for new outdoor gear, including us, is trying to find the stuff that is going to perform the best for an "acceptable" cost. We obviously appreciate the effort Edelrid is making to produce sweet gear while simultaneously minimizing the impact of the gear. We've been trying to identify and implement ways that WeighMyRack can help people identify more eco-friendly gear, but it's an ongoing challenge. For example, we did put a "bluesign®" filter on the "Sewn Slings" page on WMR. But currently the only products that show up are Edelrid slings. Hopefully that will become more products in the future, but for now it's not super helpful. There just aren't many meaningful standards that companies are compelled to work toward achieving, primarily because there is so little consumer pressure. For example, Mammut uses a lot of materials that are bluesign® approved but it just costs so much to certify the products it's difficult to justify the investment if consumers don't really even know what bluesign® is, let alone make buying decisions on the certification. We got a chance to sit down with the new CEO of bluesign® when we were in Switzerland and she is really focussed on getting the bluesign® brand more consumer facing so there will be an increase in brand awareness and therefore more demand, which we are excited about. But to honest, there actually is a lot of work being done within the industry that no one is talking to the consumer about. For example, the work being done by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (and the Outdoor Industry Association) with their development of the Higg Index is a HUGE effort and has the potential to drive a sea change of more environmentally conscious product development. At this point, we are hoping that WeighMyRack can be a conduit to inform consumers on what is actually happening within the industry, and ultimately how we can all begin to understand the full impact of the products we buy. But it's a long road. If you have any suggestions for WeighMyRack or things you're curious about, please don't hesitate to reach out! Cheers, Andreas
Hey Andreas, thanks for the reply. My idea of what WmR could do is to provide some more insight on eco gear. I personally have a hard time trusting labels, they are soo many, and an also a lot of stories about Label being biased or only about money. It's a bit like my feeling with ONG, some are amazing and some close to a scam, but differentiating between them is sometimes really hard. Maybe what you could do is some kind of awards or ranking with documented information on why. Basically, ask brand and crawl into the huge amount of data you can find online for relevant and true data so I do not have too. I don't know if the work required will be worth the reach this Award or point system would get, only you could tell. I am not saying create a new label, that would be pointless, but basically do my job of searching for them and show me why I should trust your judgment / you. Cheers :)
Thanks for your replies Kevin!! I've been looking for an excuse to dive deeper into this discussion! Your specific ideas are helpful in giving me ways to think about about how we could provide more insight on eco gear. We've been struggling with this because there aren't many eco options. On WMR, for slings we've added a filter for "bluesign" certified -- which we've been meaning to do with ropes and harnesses too. For shoes, there is one recycled materials shoe (La Sportiva Mythos Eco), and a few pairs coming out in 2018 that use more environmentally friendly leather processing (La Sportiva and SCARPA) -- at the moment I'm not exactly sure how to categorize them / what type of filter would be most helpful. One of my questions is: what makes a piece eco-friendly? Like Butora recently came out with a shoe, the Narsha, where the top of the shoe has rubber grips that are made using upcycled rubber dust created during the grinding / shaping of the sole rubber. Does that count as worthy of being called out? How? Maybe this is where having an Eco "Award" or "WMR Eco Stamp" if you will, could come in handy. On a scale of 1-3 this would be the bronze Eco standard because they're doing something more than most. Or is that giving them too much credit? Would it make more sense to have 1 WMR ECO stamp, and then an "honorable mention" 2nd ECO stamp? (With the goal to keep it simple, yet helpful) For metal goods, I'm not really aware of any eco-friendly goods. Most manufacturers recycle scrap metal, partly because they make money doing so, but I wouldn't say that makes the product itself particularly sustainable/eco-friendly. Earlier this year I wrote an article for Climbing Magazine about gear sustainability (www.climbing.com/gear/how-green-is-climbing-gear/) and the a big takeaway was: soft goods is where the advancements are happening. Otherwise, my biggest eco takeaway is: how can we all become louder in our requests for eco-friendly products. Whether that's WMR calling out the small amount of products that are, or you requesting us to do so (thank you), or taking time to document the efforts of companies that are doing more. Or, like we say in the video, for all of us to keep (or start) asking retailers and manufacturers where/what are their eco-friendly products. All of this is helping move the industry forward.
Figures the second I hit "reply" I realize there's more questions I can add to the discussion... For metal, there is little being done in terms of sustainability. But, Edelrid, is now making hybrid steel/aluminum carabiners, which I personally think is particularly eco friendly and innovative, as the carabiners will be much less likely to wear out and create more trash. Edelrid also is working to make all of their belay devices out of steel, for longevity. But is that Eco friendly from a consumer perspective? I honestly haven't dived into the sourcing of materials: how their mined, smelted, extruded, etc -- is that what is necessary to decide in this case? These are big questions, but I'm really curious to hear more thoughts as we all help to shape this industry.
Take's quality marketing to change buying habits and frankly, no climbing manufacturer is investing big $$ marketing budgets on eco friendly messaging..... Patagonia as we all know executes this type of branding flawlessly. I bet Edelrids primary focus is on educating reps for pitching eco friendly benefits and that's a problem because customer journeys start online (aka outdoor gear lab etc) these days. A better go to market strategy would be a video content strategy supported by Tommy Caldwell driving eco friendly products.
This is a spot on comment. If climbing gear had the same margins as clothing, I bet you'd see that translated in bigger marketing budgets that are able to support broader eco-friendly messaging. And I do agree that there is currently a missed opportunity in partnering with athlete's to promote more direct eco-friendly messaging in the meantime.
I have 2 Edelrid Swift Pro rope, and to be honest, when I bought them, it wasn't because they were bluesign or ecological, I did not even knew it was a possibility. They were just the best rope for my needs.
With every rope from Edelrid they provide some documentation on how the rope was created, bluesign process, how to recycle previous rope, etc. This made me aware of the ecological side and this video a little bit more.
I will still be looking for the best gear for my specific needs, but ecological aspect will be a close second to the technical one, and yes, I will be ready to pay a bit more for them to be eco-friendly.
Maybe WMR could add some filter or create a blog post about eco gear.
In any case big kudos for Edelrid for doing what they do, the more I learn about them, the more I like this company.
Thanks Kevin for sharing! I think most everyone looking for new outdoor gear, including us, is trying to find the stuff that is going to perform the best for an "acceptable" cost. We obviously appreciate the effort Edelrid is making to produce sweet gear while simultaneously minimizing the impact of the gear.
We've been trying to identify and implement ways that WeighMyRack can help people identify more eco-friendly gear, but it's an ongoing challenge. For example, we did put a "bluesign®" filter on the "Sewn Slings" page on WMR. But currently the only products that show up are Edelrid slings. Hopefully that will become more products in the future, but for now it's not super helpful. There just aren't many meaningful standards that companies are compelled to work toward achieving, primarily because there is so little consumer pressure. For example, Mammut uses a lot of materials that are bluesign® approved but it just costs so much to certify the products it's difficult to justify the investment if consumers don't really even know what bluesign® is, let alone make buying decisions on the certification. We got a chance to sit down with the new CEO of bluesign® when we were in Switzerland and she is really focussed on getting the bluesign® brand more consumer facing so there will be an increase in brand awareness and therefore more demand, which we are excited about.
But to honest, there actually is a lot of work being done within the industry that no one is talking to the consumer about. For example, the work being done by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (and the Outdoor Industry Association) with their development of the Higg Index is a HUGE effort and has the potential to drive a sea change of more environmentally conscious product development. At this point, we are hoping that WeighMyRack can be a conduit to inform consumers on what is actually happening within the industry, and ultimately how we can all begin to understand the full impact of the products we buy. But it's a long road. If you have any suggestions for WeighMyRack or things you're curious about, please don't hesitate to reach out!
Cheers,
Andreas
Hey Andreas, thanks for the reply.
My idea of what WmR could do is to provide some more insight on eco gear.
I personally have a hard time trusting labels, they are soo many, and an also a lot of stories about Label being biased or only about money.
It's a bit like my feeling with ONG, some are amazing and some close to a scam, but differentiating between them is sometimes really hard.
Maybe what you could do is some kind of awards or ranking with documented information on why.
Basically, ask brand and crawl into the huge amount of data you can find online for relevant and true data so I do not have too.
I don't know if the work required will be worth the reach this Award or point system would get, only you could tell.
I am not saying create a new label, that would be pointless, but basically do my job of searching for them and show me why I should trust your judgment / you.
Cheers :)
Thanks for your replies Kevin!! I've been looking for an excuse to dive deeper into this discussion!
Your specific ideas are helpful in giving me ways to think about about how we could provide more insight on eco gear.
We've been struggling with this because there aren't many eco options. On WMR, for slings we've added a filter for "bluesign" certified -- which we've been meaning to do with ropes and harnesses too. For shoes, there is one recycled materials shoe (La Sportiva Mythos Eco), and a few pairs coming out in 2018 that use more environmentally friendly leather processing (La Sportiva and SCARPA) -- at the moment I'm not exactly sure how to categorize them / what type of filter would be most helpful.
One of my questions is: what makes a piece eco-friendly? Like Butora recently came out with a shoe, the Narsha, where the top of the shoe has rubber grips that are made using upcycled rubber dust created during the grinding / shaping of the sole rubber. Does that count as worthy of being called out? How? Maybe this is where having an Eco "Award" or "WMR Eco Stamp" if you will, could come in handy. On a scale of 1-3 this would be the bronze Eco standard because they're doing something more than most. Or is that giving them too much credit? Would it make more sense to have 1 WMR ECO stamp, and then an "honorable mention" 2nd ECO stamp? (With the goal to keep it simple, yet helpful)
For metal goods, I'm not really aware of any eco-friendly goods. Most manufacturers recycle scrap metal, partly because they make money doing so, but I wouldn't say that makes the product itself particularly sustainable/eco-friendly.
Earlier this year I wrote an article for Climbing Magazine about gear sustainability (www.climbing.com/gear/how-green-is-climbing-gear/) and the a big takeaway was: soft goods is where the advancements are happening.
Otherwise, my biggest eco takeaway is: how can we all become louder in our requests for eco-friendly products. Whether that's WMR calling out the small amount of products that are, or you requesting us to do so (thank you), or taking time to document the efforts of companies that are doing more. Or, like we say in the video, for all of us to keep (or start) asking retailers and manufacturers where/what are their eco-friendly products. All of this is helping move the industry forward.
Figures the second I hit "reply" I realize there's more questions I can add to the discussion...
For metal, there is little being done in terms of sustainability. But, Edelrid, is now making hybrid steel/aluminum carabiners, which I personally think is particularly eco friendly and innovative, as the carabiners will be much less likely to wear out and create more trash.
Edelrid also is working to make all of their belay devices out of steel, for longevity. But is that Eco friendly from a consumer perspective? I honestly haven't dived into the sourcing of materials: how their mined, smelted, extruded, etc -- is that what is necessary to decide in this case?
These are big questions, but I'm really curious to hear more thoughts as we all help to shape this industry.
Exceptionally well done. Vielen dank!
Thank you, James. Comments like that keep us psyched to keep making videos. Cheers!
Take's quality marketing to change buying habits and frankly, no climbing manufacturer is investing big $$ marketing budgets on eco friendly messaging.....
Patagonia as we all know executes this type of branding flawlessly. I bet Edelrids primary focus is on educating reps for pitching eco friendly benefits and that's a problem because customer journeys start online (aka outdoor gear lab etc) these days.
A better go to market strategy would be a video content strategy supported by Tommy Caldwell driving eco friendly products.
This is a spot on comment. If climbing gear had the same margins as clothing, I bet you'd see that translated in bigger marketing budgets that are able to support broader eco-friendly messaging. And I do agree that there is currently a missed opportunity in partnering with athlete's to promote more direct eco-friendly messaging in the meantime.