True North’s Mission: Building a Greener Future for the Planet
At True North Gear, we are proud to be part of a growing movement of companies committed to addressing climate change challenges. In addition to designing sustainable gear for those working in extreme weather and harsh working conditions, our mission is to preserve our healthy landscapes, clean water, and air for future generations. That's why we continually seek new ways to reduce our environmental impact, from using sustainable materials in our products to implementing energy-efficient practices in our manufacturing processes. By working together with our customers and nonprofit partners, we can help benefit from restoring our landscapes for everyone to enjoy.
Our Initiatives
THE CHANGE CLIMATE PROJECT
The nonprofit organization The Change Climate Project provides tools and resources to help companies achieve carbon neutrality by measuring, offsetting, and reducing their carbon footprint. The shared goal across these companies is to eliminate more than 1,000,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. In April 2022, we announced that we are officially Climate Neutral Certified and committed to taking action to reduce our emissions. As of today, we are Climate Neutral re-certified for 2023! Through our initial certification process, we developed a Reduction Action Plan to reduce our carbon emissions, and we are creating new goals each year to further our reduction efforts.
1% FOR THE PLANET + AMERICAN FOREST
In addition to partnering with The Change Climate Project, we are working with the nonprofit organization 1% for the Planet. They are a global community that joins members of 1% for the Planet to work directly with nonprofit partners towards a shared goal of preserving the land and its resources. When you purchase a True North product, we donate 1% of your purchase to environmental organizations.
Through 1% for the Planet, we have partnered with the nonprofit organization American Forest since 2020. Their mission is to restore and protect forests and their ecosystems, mainly due to the effects of wildfires, and provide education on the importance of healthy forests. Through their Resilient Forests program (previously named the Releaf program), they focus on creating and maintaining healthy forests in North America. As an American Forest partner, we pledged to plant 10,000 trees annually across the United States. For every dollar we donate, one new tree is planted across California, Colorado, and Arkansas.
*When shopping for new gear, keep a look out for the 1% for the Planet and American Forest labels on our product pages!
Updates to Our Reduction Action Plan
Our team began by dedicating hours to understanding our climate impact through each of our brands - True North Gear, DragonWear, and The Pack Shack. We gathered our emissions data through the manufacturing and shipping of products, supply chain emissions, employee commuting, business travel, and utility bills. As a result, our total carbon footprint was 3,184 tonnes. Based on this information, we strategized a Reduction Action Plan to offset our carbon emissions.
Reduction Measure #1
We plan to reduce emissions from our nylon consumption by reducing the weight of the nylon fabric used in our bags. In addition, we will assess durability needs in our nylon bags and swap out 1000 denier nylon for lower denier nylon wherever feasible in lighter-wear areas and products.
UPDATE: We're currently in the process of transitioning select products from 1000 denier nylon to 500 denier nylon.
Reduction Measure #2
We plan to reduce emissions from our natural gas office heating by auditing and improving our office's heating efficiency. Fans, timers, electric heaters, and other modifications will be installed where necessary.
UPDATE: We're excited to announce that we have completed our goal of conducting an energy audit to optimize our energy consumption and planning new strategies to continue to reduce our consumption.
Along with our current goals for our Reduction Action Plan, we are adding two new goals for 2024. Our primary goal is to reduce our shipping emissions and provide more opportunities to manage aspects of our production. We are focusing on moving more of our manufacturing to our home state of Washington with our newly acquired building and opening our own sewing lines. Additionally, we're assessing our current business travel and implementing a policy to optimize it. With these goals in mind, by 2030, we are committing to reducing our 2021 carbon emissions by 50%.
