In our advertising and consumer-oriented world, we are often deliberately deceived and a lot of money is spent trying to conceal the real cost of the products we purchase every day. Ironically, outdoor companies are in somewhat of a predicament. If they destroy the earth, they also destroy their business because without a pristine environment I doubt there would be a large demand for hiking boots or camping gear. It is not surprising then that most wilderness chic clothing companies claim to be environmentally conscious.
Patagonia, for example, has a cool little feature called "The Footprint Chronicles" which allows you to track the path that a product takes all the way from the design process in California, back to the distribution center in Nevada. The website omits the final trip from the distribution center to the retail stores. The website reveals how unbelievably wasteful our current globalized production system is. The company's rainbow shadow jacket for example, travels over 10,000 miles and has a carbon footprint of about 35 pounds more than 43 times the weight of the jacket itself (Again this does not include the last part - shipping products to retail store all around the world). While the website is informative and shows that Patagonia is committed to improving their environmental record, it also reveals the limitations of working within the current industrial system. Will a company like Patagonia every be carbon neutral? If a 'good' company like Patagonia struggles to be eco-friendly, what does that say about more mainstream companies? There are no easy answers to sustainability issues but maybe it's time we start thinking about alternatives.
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