
Taking action, today.
The issues facing our planet are existential and require urgent action. That's why we're building awareness of our environmental impacts, and action, into the foundation of how we do business.
Actions
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:
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
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.
Reporting
- 2024 Emissions Summary
- 2023 Emissions Summary
- 2022 Emissions Summary
- 2021 Emissions Summary
- 2021 Climate Action Report
- 2020 Emissions Summary
Reduction Action Plans
Packaging (in progress)
- We will transition all thermal shipping labels to labels with a release liner that is made of 100% recycled content and is curbside recyclable with a recycle friendly adhesive across all domestic shipments.
Upstream shipping (in progress)
- We will eliminate all upstream shipments via expedited shipping across domestic sourcing.
Raw materials (in progress)
- We will expand the use of recycled materials in our sewn products by transitioning the fabrics used to make our products' floors from virgin polyester/nylon to recycled polyester or recycled nylon.
(Some of our floors are now available from recycled polyester; however, we have opted to also offer a virgin polyester floor fabric that provides better puncture resistance compared to the recycled fabric)
Raw materials (completed))
- We will transition 100% of our foreign-sourced nylon webbing to recycled nylon across all of our products.
Packaging (completed)
- Eliminate all rubber bands from the packaging of our tents and tarps.
Employee commuting (completed)
- We will implement a policy for low-carbon commuting to incentivize public transit, running, biking, and carpooling.
Operational waste (completed)
- We will reduce waste from cut/sew-offcuts at the YAMA Workshop by providing fabric scraps to DIY makers for upcycling.