Eco Working Group participants are recognized as thought leaders in sustainability, both within and beyond the outdoor industry. They have the opportunity to collaborate with their peers to create cutting-edge tools that will establish their organizations as worldwide leaders in the movement toward more responsible business practices.
 
Consumer demand for more sustainable products is mounting. Suppliers, brands, and retailers alike must be aware of the impact of their products throughout the product life cycle and actively seek to reduce their environmental footprint - or risk losing market share. For outdoor retailers, another challenge is wading through the wide variety of brand-specific sustainability measurement systems and labels currently in existence. The Eco Index will provide retailers with a common language and method for identifying the environmental impacts of the products and brands they carry.
 
The business case for implementing more sustainable practices within outdoor industry companies has been proven. Consider the following:
 

• Since nau began collaborating with its manufacturing partners to improve transparency and data collection around production activities, the company has seen increased engagement and competition among its factories to provide “the best” data (to decrease their impacts).
• By removing the printing from the inside of each shoe box lid, Brooks Running reduced its shoe box printing costs by 8%. By creating two additional shoe box sizes, allowing for a tighter fit around several core shoe sizes, the company saved 35,000 square meters of material.
• In re-designing its Jam Pack backpack, GoLite reduced the carbon footprint of the primary textile used by approximately 30% - while maintaining the performance and durability of the product.
• To date, Patagonia's efforts to encourage its supply chain to adopt more sustainable practices have resulted in eleven of its textile mills adopting the Bluesign standard - allowing Patagonia to reduce the costs and time associated with monitoring those vendors.