Taking action, today.

Actions

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The Climate Label Certified

• The Climate Label is a trusted mark of corporate climate leadership. The certification requires companies to consistently fund climate solutions inside and beyond their value chains. Value chain projects and carbon credits play a role alongside each other within the portfolio of accepted climate transition activities.

Greenhouse Gas Accounting

• In 2024, our estimated* emissions for Scope 1, 2, & 3 totaled 71 metric tons CO2-e (~150,528 lbs).
  *Includes an overestimate of 15%. Based on an economic input-output model.

Climate Transition Budget (CTB)

• The Change Climate Project has implemented a new framework for certification year 2024, based around the Climate Transition Budget (CTB). The CTB is a company’s minimum total required investment in the Net Zero transition, and brings financial structure and transparency to corporate climate transition plans. It is broken down into Value Chain Abatement (VCA) and Beyond Value Chain (BVC) investment. Our CTB spend for 2024 is broken down as follows.
  • VCA - Low-carbon material purchase (33%): The premium spent on purchasing recycled fabric vs virgin fabric (we only claimed a small portion of the premium we spent).
  • VCA - Justice transition initiative (15%): We provided financial support to Climate Smart Missoula.
  • BVC - Carbon credit (54%): Our purchase of verified carbon offsets (more below).

Carbon Offsetting

• We purchase Verified Carbon Offsets to balance some of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our Scopes 1, 2, and 3. For 2024, our spend on these carbon offsets accounted for 52% of our CTB. In 2021, 2022, and 2023, we purchased offsets to account for all of our estimated emissions. As we move forward with the new framework of The Climate Label, we are moving focus to the CTB.
  
  For 2024, we purchased 26 credits through Sea Trees, specifically the Southern Cardamom REDD+ project in Cambodia.
  
  Prior credits have included:
  
  • Maine 100-Mile Wilderness Improved Forest Management
  • Ohio 18 Reserves Improved Forest Management
  • Blandin Native American Hardwoods Conservation
  • Bluesource - Blue Ridge Escarpment Improved Forest Management Project
  • Borneo Peatlands (Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation)

Volunteerism

• We've created a policy to incentivize volunteerism with environmentally focused non-profits. When an employee uses their PTO to do volunteer work, they receive 150% of their applied PTO.

Raw Material

• We have transitioned all of our [non-DCF] tarps to Recycled Silpoly.

Waste

• We try to provide waste specs for our products. This spec shows you about how much in-house waste is produced for a given product, on average. Look for it in the product specifications.
• Waste audits help us stay aware of how much trash we make.

Shipping

• We REUSE packaging materials when it makes sense. Thanks for your understanding if you receive your order in a box that has a history!
• We use recycled content and paper tapes in our packaging materials as much as possible. Most of our unused padded mailers are 32.6% post consumer waste and designed for multiple uses. YOU can recycle these mailers and padded Priority Mail envelopes wherever grocery bags are accepted.

Past Actions

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Donated 1% of our revenue

• YAMA was a member of 1% for the Planet from 2019 to 2022, donating over 1% of our revenue to environmental efforts in our local community. We're proud to have supported the Great Burn Conservation Alliance and the Clark Fork Coalition in 2022. Past organizations that we've supported include Wild Montana and the Montana Natural History Center.

Energy

• In the past, we've purchased Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to ensure that our electricity came from renewable resources. Unfortunately, our energy use data became unavailable to us in 2022, however, the carbon offsets that we've purchased still account for the emissions from our estimated usage.

Climate Action Corps

• YAMA Mountain Gear is proud to have been a founding member of the Climate Action Corps, a group of collaborating companies taking the lead on climate action in the outdoor industry. Unfortunately, we discontinued our membership in 2022. While we learned much from our participation, we found that it was not a practical fit for a small business of our size.