The crucial COP26 climate summit is being held in Glasgow this week, just a short hop from apparel specialist Endura’s headquarters in central Scotland. The cycling apparel firm notes that… ‘the future of the planet doesn’t just depend on the actions of the heads of state, politicians and officials that are meeting in Glasgow, it depends on the actions of all of us.’
At the start of the 2020, Endura launched the Million Trees project, and the company has a stated aim to become net carbon negative by 2024.
Endura is making changes to the way that it operates across the business whilst committing to planting trees at scale in order to lock up the CO2 that its activities produce. According to the company, carbon offsetting, as it’s known, is the fastest, most cost effective and powerful way for an organisation like Endura to begin to make an impact.
Pamela Barclay, Endura’s Brand Director and co-founder said “Whilst we’re obviously pleased that our One Million Trees project has exceeded our expectations and has now passed the two million mark ahead of schedule, it’s clear that we’re now at a critical point in our collective response to the climate crisis.
“Governments need to take bold steps, organisations need to act without being directed and we, as individuals, need to make changes too. If this doesn’t happen and happen quickly then the future looks increasingly grim for the planet and its inhabitants.
“We, as a company, will continue to make changes across our operations in order to reduce both our CO2 and overall environmental footprint.”
By planting trees and aggressively reducing its CO2 emissions, Endura will first net out its current footprint, before becoming CO2 negative in 2024. By committing to a long-term strategy, the cumulative effects of its initiatives will see Endura’s historic CO2 emissions being locked away by 2027.
In terms of chemical usage in its apparel making process, Endura has been PFC free since 2018 and does not use PTFE in its waterproofs. This is a chemical that’s often used in waterproof membranes and which persists in the environment for a long time.
A number of the brand’s products now carry the MADEKIND label that certifies it as having been made in a way that eliminates harmful substances from the supply chain; ensuring that products are safe for workers, the environment and riders.
Endura’s 5,000sqm facility uses both electricity and natural gas to power and heat its offices, factory and warehouse spaces. Calculations showed that the biggest reductions in emissions would come mainly from switching to renewable sources of electricity generation. Endura has now switched their providers to make that happen.
To help prevent bags being sent to landfill, Endura encourage its partner bike shops to return LDPE bags for the brand to chemically recycle. It accepts non-Endura bags as part of this process too.
The CO2 emissions involved in returning the bags to distribution centres in the UK and Europe and then reprocessing them to form new LDPE bags are said to be dramatically lower than creating new bags from raw petrochemicals.
99% of Endura’s consumer store packaging is recyclable. It has been removing all laminate and gloss finishes from packaging and tags to ensure that they are more easily recyclable since 2015. It is now actively developing alternative solutions to the bags used to send products out to stores and the hangers used to display them when they get there.
98% of point of sale packaging can be recycled – Endura use easily recycled products like cardboard and steel to create the in-store fixtures used to display its products and is working to further reduce the percentage of non-recyclables.
