A great deal of thought, research, field tests, and feedback from consumers and employees go into REI's award-winning product designs. Quality, performance, functionality and attractive styling are at the forefront of our efforts. In recent years, we've begun to look at another important design goal: sustainability.

For REI this means striving to incorporate environmentally-friendly materials into our products where and when it makes sense, and taking a long-term view of the entire product life cycle.

Design

In designing products, our long-term goal is to utilize raw materials that have been produced or harvested in a sustainable manner and consider the impact on people and the environment. We have used organic cotton and hemp fiber and recycled synthetic fibers in some of our REI brand products. We are exploring the use of soy, bamboo, non-petroleum based plastics and recycled materials, such as fleece made from 60 percent recycled polymer fibers for future products. We partner with other brands to help move the industry in the right direction.

Beyond raw materials, REI is beginning to explore the downstream impacts of our products, including the efficient use of materials and designing "recycle-ability" into our products wherever possible. We will identify, measure and establish initiatives to reduce known product impacts.

Packaging

Reducing and recycling waste is an important goal for REI. We also look for ways to avoid creating waste altogether. To that end, we are focused on strategies to redesign and minimize our product packaging, while still providing important product information and protection during shipping. Some of our progress to date includes developing creative packaging techniques such as "self-packaging" for duffle bags, backpacks and tents and incorporating environmentally-friendly paper stock into some of our packaging and signage.

We have joined the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and will use our industry experience to help generate new ideas and technologies. Going forward, we want to further align packaging with our other sustainability objectives, such as using sustainable forest products, minimizing waste and maximizing recycling.

The Journey Ahead

Sustainable design and packaging is a relatively new concept and we have much to learn. We are beginning to develop metrics and goals for product life cycle impacts, evaluate new sources of sustainable materials, continue to support the sales of low impact products, and work closely with our partners and the industry to identify and share best practices. Achieving both product performance and environmental responsibility is not simple, but we feel it's a mountain worth climbing.