8 Outdoor Industry Companies that Leverage Sustainability to Land Top Talent
We’re talking to executives in the outdoor industry all day long, and something we noticed recently is that many of these companies are doing groundbreaking things when it comes to sustainability.
Problem is, they’re not always communicating their commitment to sustainability clearly and forcibly in their recruitment efforts. In other words, they’re walking the walk, but they’re not fully leveraging their values to recruit the top talent, most of whom happen to embrace those very same values.
Caution: Don’t try the “fake it ’til you make it” approach to leverage sustainability in your recruitment efforts. In the context of sustainability, this approach is referred to as greenwashing or greensheening. It’s the practice of deceptively using advertising or market spin to convince the public that your mission, products, and policies are environmentally friendly when they’re really not. The top talent in the industry can tell the genuine from the phony, and word travels fast. You don’t want to get a reputation for being a poser.
Those outdoor industry companies that are most effective in their recruitment efforts do both. Sustainability is just second nature. It’s not being used as a marketing hook. Instead, it’s a value. A value they have baked into their recruitment and hiring.
In fact, sustainability practices in the outdoor industry have become so important that a number of colleges and universities have created tracks to prepare graduates for what we now know will be paramount to the environmental sustainability of the outdoor recreation economy. Programs such as Western Colorado University’s Outdoor Industry MBA, the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Sustainability in the Outdoor Industry track within its Masters of the Environment program, and Utah State University’s Outdoor Product Design & Development program which recently partnered with the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) on a Sustainable Product Design & Supply Chain Certificate, are each leading the way in preparing the next generation of outdoor industry leaders.
In this post, we spotlight eight outdoor industry companies that we feel are doing a fantastic job with respect to environmental sustainability. That matters because the executive marketplace wants to work for the best of the best, and, all things considered, you want to be hiring people whose values align with those of your organization.
prAna
prAna is an outdoor active apparel company built on a foundation of sustainability — both environmental (planet) and social (people). The company’s sustainability efforts permeate every aspect of its operations, from the fields where its organic cotton and hemp are grown to the factories where its clothing is made. It encompasses the people who make the clothing; the chemicals used in production to the packaging used to ship its products; supports fair trade; and protects worker’s rights to establish and maintain supply chains that prioritize the use of transparent sources of fiber (responsible forest fibers).
On its Career page, prAna presents its values front and center with a focus on making positive changes in the world, both in terms of the environment and the people who inhabit the planet. The company is careful to point out that a career at prAna is not merely a job, but a lifestyle — doing what’s right for the planet and for one another.
Outerknown
All you need to do to get a feel for Outerknown’s commitment to sustainability is visit its About page. While most companies use their About page to highlight their history and what they do, Outerknown’s About page presents its values front and center. Here, the company clearly communicates its commitment to sustainability — both environmental and social. One of the first statements on the page reads: “We’re committed to protecting the environment and supporting fair labor.” It doesn’t get any clearer or simpler than that. The page then proceeds to break down the company’s sustainability efforts into five categories: Materials, Sourcing, Farming, Worker’s Wellbeing, and Circularity.
Outerknown’s Career page reinforces its values by highlighting community and the “circularity of the product lifecycle,” and then concisely, states its world vision: “A world where people and planet prosper.” Anyone visiting the page to view a list of current openings cannot help but see that sustainability is a key value. To reinforce the message, near the bottom of the page is a link to Outerknown’s Sustainability Strategy for 2030.
KMD Brands
It’s hard to miss KMD Brands’ commitment to sustainability. While “Sustainability” is a menu item on most company’s websites, “Communities, Climate, and Circularity” is a menu on the KMD Brands website. This menu gives you access to highlights in all three of those areas, plus links to the company’s sustainability reports, where you can find out more about the company’s communities, climate, and circularity goals.
The KMD Brands Career page does a fine job of integrating its commitment to sustainability with its recruitment efforts. Just look below the heading Why consider KMD Brands as an Employer? and you see that one of the reasons has to do with sustainability (both social and environmental): “Our vision is to be the leading family of global outdoor brands — designed for purpose, driven by innovation, best for people and planet.” Below the heading, Are we aligned? the company reinforces its values with the statement: “We are striving to minimize our impact on the environment and continue to better ourselves in ethical sourcing.”
Free Fly Apparel
Free Fly is a family-owned outdoor active apparel company that has a strong commitment to both environmental and social sustainability. At the core of the company’s product line are its fabric blends, which use bamboo fibers grown on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified regenerative farmland. The company uses a closed-loop process to ensure that nothing is released into the environment.
Nixon
Nixon leverages the fact that it makes many of its products from recycled plastics to do just that and, in the process, prevent plastics from ending up in the ocean. To this end, the company has partnered with several organizations sharing that goal, including #Tide, REPREVE, Plastic Bank, and SeaTrees.
Specifically, Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems and reprocesses the materials for reintroduction into the global supply chain as Social Plastic. Nixon is a key player in this global supply chain, providing a market for recycled plastic and fair compensation for the people collecting the plastic for recycling — many living in impoverished communities.
La Sportiva
La Sportiva has invested a great deal in building a sustainable company and documenting its efforts in this regard, going so far as to create and publish online it’s 50-plus page Sustainability Report (PDF). In his letter to stakeholders, CEO and president Lorenzo Delladio clearly states the company’s values as they relate to sustainability: “Reducing our impact with best practices, always enhancing the sustainability of our choices, and improving our community’s quality of life are values that we have upheld since 1928.”
BioLite
BioLite’s mission is “to empower people and protect our planet through access to renewable energy.” According to its impact tracker, it is making significant progress in achieving that mission, providing power to more than five million people in Africa and Asia, generating nearly 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity from renewable energy sources, and offsetting more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide with its products. You can find out more about the company’s sustainability efforts via its Road to Impact page.
Quality Bicycle Products
Quality Bicycle Products has an entire web page devoted to sustainability. The company’s sustainability efforts are focused in three areas — planet, communities, and the industry. On this page, the company highlighted a key statistic for each area:
- Planet: 9,837 metric tons of CO2 saved through environmentally friendly practices since 2017
- Communities: 450-plus community-based organization partnerships fostered since 2010
- Industry: $10 million-plus contributed to initiatives that increase ridership since 1999
Promoting Sustainability in Your Recruitment Efforts
If you’re not promoting your values in your recruiting, you should be. Values are as important as location and opportunity, and right now, sustainability is a key value embraced by nearly everyone in the outdoor industry. From the word “go,” you should be addressing sustainability at every key step in the search process:
- When discussing the opening with your executive search partner.
- When defining your objectives for the position.
- When developing a detailed position and candidate specification.
- When identifying the most qualified candidates, which could be influenced in part by their experience with sustainability-related practices.
If sustainability is not an integral part of your recruitment and hiring efforts, it should be. If you are struggling in this regard, contact us for assistance.