Environmental Impact Rating

The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) is creating a new program that will allow brands to use a consistent system to rate the environmental impact of their products and hundreds of companies are betting they can use this tool to make their businesses better by making their products better.

The Outdoor Industry Eco Index, which was announced to the outdoor industry at this summer’s OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen, Germany and the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, Utah, is an environmental assessment  tool that examines and quantifies the environmental impacts of specific products to allow manufacturers to benchmark current levels and set standards for improvement. The index looks at products from cradle to grave, focusing on six key stages of their life cycles: Materials; Packaging; Product Manufacturing and Assembly; Transport and Distribution; Use and Service; and End of Life.

While the Index, which has been in the works since 2007, is still in the “stakeholder review period” and not scheduled to be officially released until early 2011, over 80 companies including Patagonia, The North Face, Timberland, REI, and Quiksilver have signed up to test a “Beta Phase 1” version and help fine tune the final system before its official release.

-SkiingBusiness.com