SUSTAINABILITY

our rules to live by

Our mission is to help people have more fun doing what they love in the mountains.

We had the opportunity to be a Capstone partner for the University of Colorado Boulder's Masters of the Environment (MENV) program throughout 2023. Together with a team of 4 masters students and Faculty Advisor and MENV Professor Dr. Natalie Ooi, we developed the Strategic Plan for Buttnski.

While this Strategic Plan touches upon five Key Focus Areas, its primary emphasis is on Sustainability. These are the goals we are actively working towards, with more on the horizon as we continue to learn, gather feedback from our customers and grow our business.

With all the greenwashing running rampant these days, here's what these two words mean to us:

Sustainability:

Using responsibly sourced materials and ethical manufacturers to make high quality, long-lasting products.

Responsibility:

Basing decisions on factors that impact people, planet, profit, and product.

Sustainability Goals & Committments

For Buttnski, this means being committed to only choosing suppliers and manufacturers whose business practices align with our Rules to Live By—“Be Better” in particular. This means working with companies that treat their employees and animals well and who also have taken steps to improve the sustainability and responsibility of their initiatives. The businesses that Buttnski chooses to work with should also produce high-quality materials and products, ensuring that in partnering with them, performance or style is not sacrificed. Why is this important? Because “from people to products, supply chain to materials, and everything in between,” Buttnski believes in doing things right.

  • Target 1: Ethically source 100% of all textiles by the end of 2025
  • Target 2: Ethically manufacture 100% of all products by the end of 2025
  • Target 3: Establish traceability of all textiles by the end of 2025

Being an early adopter of the Prana Responsible Packaging Movement, helped get us started in this direction and we are constantly looking for the best alternatives to our packaging while keeping minimalism in mind - this means you may not see a bunch of pretty tissue paper and matching cards in when you receive your order & we thank you in advance for letting the product speak for itself!

  • Target 1: Eliminate the use of single-use plastic in packaging by 2024
  • Target 2: Achieve 100% textile circularity by 2026

Before we can start to track and reduce our GHG emissions, we must first have 1) ethical manufacturers chosen and in use; 2) elect where Buttnski is sourcing materials from; 3) identify where our distribution center will be; 4) Identify which retailers Buttnski will be sold in and their emissions; 5) consider emissions from a future office or retail space.

Target 1: Conduct energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory by 2025

Our Values

Connect More

We’re all about bringing mountain-loving folks together! Whether you’re pushing boundaries in the backcountry or getting the crew together for après at your local watering hole, these shared experiences are what it’s all about.

Be Better

We believe in continuous improvement in all aspects of our business—from people to products, supply chain to materials, and everything in between. We design durable, functional layers (that look good and actually fit!) so you can be your best in every moment of every adventure. We also source textiles that are free from harmful chemicals like PFAS by looking for certifications like Bluesign® and Responsible Down Standard.

Do Good

The mountains are our happy place, whether it's where we live or where we feel at home. As stewards of these special places, we’re committed to leaving things better than we found them.

PLAY!

We believe that everyone should take life a little less seriously. That means getting outside, having fun with your favorite people, and feeling and looking amazing while doing it. We’re ready to stop living for the weekend and to just start living.

To better understand what we're here to do, let's start with what we're NOT doing...

we are NOT doing this

  • sacrificing style for performance
  • using harmful chemicals (no PFAS)
  • choosing the least expensive materials to save a buck
  • trying to make our apparel as inexpensive as possible
  • cutting corners on quality
  • making things that everyone likes, or loves
  • trying to please everyone
  • making fast fashion

Enough of that for now... here's what we ARE doing

*disclaimer - we aren't perfect humans (yet!) - we're just doing our best

we ARE

  • free of harmful chemicals & PFAS (worth mentioning a million times!)
  • ethically sourcing materials that are Bluesign® certified and meet the highest standards like RDS (Responsible Down Standard)
  • being thoughtful about fit, style, performance and functionality
  • working towards inclusive sizing & gender non-conforming options
  • making technical clothing that will stand up to the mountain lifestyle
  • inspired by streetwear and trying to bring that into outdoor clothing
  • flipping gorpcore (a trend to wear outerwear typically designed for outdoor recreation as streetwear) on it's head by designing clothing that is designed to look like streetwear while performing for outdoor recreation
  • considering the environmental impacts of every choice we make, from selecting material and trims, to where we do business, to the supplies we purchase... it's endless and we are relentless in the pursuit to do better
  • trying so hard to reshore manufacturing (bring manufacturing back to the US) and localize our supply chain whenever possible
  • working towards becoming an economic driver in our community and providing meaningful, year-round employment in a mountain town that is dominated by the travel & tourism community (which we LOVE & we want to support full-timers to have an awesome lifestyle here!)

MORE THINGS WE CARE A LOT ABOUT

Prana Responsible Packaging Movement

We joined the Prana Responsible Packaging Movement back in 2021 and are committed to eliminating single-use plastic and virgin forest fiber from our packaging, as well as excess packaging waste in our supply chain.

You can help us #ReshapePackaging together.

Learn more about the Prana Responsible Packaging Movement here.

1% for the Planet

We are committed to donating 1% of our revenue to directly support issues we care about.

Learn more about 1% for the Planet here.

DOWNLITE

We are so excited to be working with DOWNLITE for our 100% US fully-traceable down fill. They are committed to using Responsibly Sourced Down and are RDS (Responsible Down Standard) Certified.

Learn more about DOWNLITE and their RDS Certification here.

Thank you for joining us on this journey of exploration, continuous curiosity and learning new things about what we care about so we can improve every day. We're so glad you're here and that you're part of our family who loves and desires to protect the very things that bring us together and make this life worth living.

xo ~ Kelly, Christian, Drake & KC