Outdoor retailers go green

When Beaver Theodosakis founded his outdoor apparel company 13 years ago, he shipped his product in boxes "recycled" from behind grocery stores.

Clothing was displayed on racks made of recycled steel, which Theodosakis welded himself, and hemp — not plastic — was used to attach homemade tags to the garments.

"We've had this kind of talk since the beginning," Theodosakis said Thursday from the prAna booth at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Tradeshow, where talk of environmental sustainability and green business practices took center stage.

"There is a real movement in the industry on that," said Frank Hugelmeyer, president of the Outdoor Industry Association. "We are aware and absolutely see it as part of our responsibility."

And it's no longer just using recycled tires in the soles of shoes or organic cotton in apparel. Outdoor retailers are leading the way on creating completely biodegradable products — shoes that completely disappear after six months in a landfill, for instance — and offsetting their carbon footprint as much as possible.

"If anyone should take the lead on this, it should be us," Theodosakis said. "We should be the leaders and inspire other industries."

Last year, prAna received the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Leader Award, largely because of its Natural Power Initiative. The program was launched in 2005 to offset the electrical energy usage of its retailers, corporate headquarters and employees' homes. Since that time, according to the company, the initiative has prevented the emission of more than 22,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases — the equivalent of removing 4,787 cars from the road for one year.

Similar efforts have been made in other industries, as well. While delivering the keynote address during Thursday's industry breakfast, Ben Packard, the director of environmental affairs for Starbucks, described a change in company operations that saved 78,000 trees and conserved enough electricity to power 650 homes in its first year.

The move to coffee cups made of 10 percent recycled material took four years and plenty of government approval but was driven by concern about the environmental impact of the 2.3 billion paper cups used by Starbucks annually.

"What opportunities might you have in your business to move that 10 percent?" Packard asked.