The North Face is proud to be a bluesign® member. The bluesign® standard looks at all of the environmental inputs and outputs of our manufacturing process. As part of its process, it evaluates the chemical make-up of our product at the beginning of the product life-cycle. It ensures that all the inputs to our products are safe for human health and the environment. The North Face is quickly adopting bluesign® certified materials and encouraging its supply chain to adopt this standard so we can all be better environmental stewards and bring products to market that not only meet our performance expectations but also our environmental ones as well.

Letitia Webster, Director Corporate Sustainability & Communications, The North Face Inc.

The environment, health and safety of people and the planet are very important to us. However, our ability to ensure our products have environmental integrity is limited if we only employ a compliance, restrict and test strategy. What is so different about the bluesign® standard methodology is that it understands ensuring best practices is part of a massively complex system and the best way to effect good performance is to design the integrity in. You can’t inspect quality into products; in the same way you can’t do the same for the environmental integrity. In addition to brands and retailers, there are provisions and responsibilities of chemical suppliers, mills and factories in the bluesign® process. Brands however are a critical link, being that they are the consumer facing and product ideation hub. As such, brands control the overall direction for materials utilized in products. By becoming a bluesign® member a product development professional has access to resources which assist in making smart choices regarding EHS throughout the textile supply chain. In addition, members are expected to actively participate in the implementation as well as the evolution of the bluesign® standard, demonstrating their commitment to a collaboration towards a greater good. There are excellent efforts underway to understand and quantify the complete environmental footprint of products—some by individual companies, as well as the entire North American outdoor industry. The bluesign® standard fits in very well with these strategies by providing a solid footing for measuring material impacts—whether water, waste, chemical or climate lenses. You can’t manage what you don’t measure, and by going with the bluesign® standard we are taking a critical step towards better understanding and thereby reducing our product’s environmental impact.

Kevin Myette, Director of Product Integrity, Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI)

As Helly Hansen set about creating a more sustainable product line, we very quickly realized that the complexity of our supply chain meant that such an initiative would need strong external partners. To truly reduce environmental impact, it is important to cover all elements of the supply chain and tackle the challenges of each area of the production process one by one. The different challenges and lack of transparency within chemical and fabric use and energy and water consumption amongst others left us feeling that this really was a mountain to climb. Fortunately, we found help with bluesign technologies and their collaborative approach with the entire outdoor industry – these are challenges that no brand, vendor or fabric mill can single handedly solve. So far, we have been impressed by bluesign technologies’ endeavours to help our key fabric mills and vendors with their screening process. This screening will be critical to the long term improvement in our footprint. In addition, we have been grateful for bluesign technologies’ competence and insight in complex chemical  and fabric challenges we have had and which they have helped us solve as part of our partnership.

Richard Collier, Vice President Product, Helly Hansen ASA

Patagonia is a company that realizes our impact on the environment is a constant, and potentially growing, component of our business. We have taken steps to reduce our Environmental Footprint in many ways but are always looking for ways to lower our impact even further. Once I learned about bluesign technologies ag, I knew we had a very interesting partner for the future of this endeavor. The people that I have worked with at bluesign technologies ag are some of the most sincere, smart and competent people I have ever worked with. They are very knowledgeable about many aspects of the textile supply chain that it makes it easy for us to come with questions on many different topics. We work with the best vendors in the world but they can't all be knowledgeable to this detail on the environmental concerns. To me, bluesign technologies ag is a progressive step forward because they are looking at the beginning of the supply chain which allows us to be proactive in our decision making. Also in their considerations, they are looking at impacts on the environment, occupational health and consumer safety.
 
Jill Dumain, Environmental Analysis Director, Patagonia Inc.

 MEC has a history of proactively working to reduce our ecological footprint. We’re committed to providing environmental leadership while providing quality products and services for our members. And bluesign technologies ag has proven to be the best choice of partner in this endeavour. Their knowledge of EHS-issues along with their experience in delivering practical solutions to the whole supply chain is a progressive step forward and will help MEC to make the right decisions for our products, our consumers and the environment.  

Greg Scott, Director of Product Integrity, Mountain Equipment Co-op

VAUDE sees itself as a partner of the environment. Early on we have recognized our responsibility toward man and nature and hence started to support the bluesign® standard as early as 2001: VAUDE was the first sporting goods brand to produce an entire product range (base layer) in accordance with the bluesign® criteria.
We see the bluesign® standard as a holistic, sophisticated and consistent standard for a production in the textile industry that is low on harmful substances and uses the least amount of resources. It is our goal to produce the entire VAUDE collection step by step at the highest ecological stage. This is a high demand and the road will be long. We can only meet our ambitious goal with an independent, competent partner – and this partner is bluesign technologies. We’re happy about the expert support of this unique standard and our membership as the first European outdoor company.

Antje von Dewitz, VAUDE Sport GmbH & Co. KG