We’re dedicated to helping people get out and enjoy this beautiful planet of ours. And we want to keep it beautiful for generations to come. So we’re doing everything in our power to make sure our environmental impact, or “footprint,” stays as small as possible.
Our primary objective is reduction. We constantly look for ways to create less waste and consume less energy. Then, what we can’t reduce, we help offset. In cooperation with Carbonfund.org, we fund green-e and ERT-certified carbon-reducing projects, like the development of solar and wind energy. Here are a few facts and figures to help you wrap your melon around the kind of impact we’re having:
Here are just a few ways we’re reducing our environmental footprint:
- We use up to 85% post-consumer recycled content and water-based inks in all packaging
- We refuse to use white cardboard, which contaminates water processing facilities with chlorine
- We use a minimum of 30% FSC-certified recycled paper in all printed materials
- We’ve dramatically reduced fossil fuel consumption (40,000 gallons in 2008) by opening our new western USA distribution center
- Yakima cargo boxes are made from up to 80% recycled ABS plastic
- Steel and plastic parts on all of our hitch products are 100% recyclable
- We recycle all plastic factory scrap – on-site – resulting in zero downstream waste and 20% recycled content in all plastic parts
- Yakima employees who commute to work by bike rode over 7,500 miles in 2009, and in doing so prevented over 6500 lbs. of Co2 from entering the atmosphere
Our CO2 offset efforts are equivalent to…
- Removing 3,729 vehicles from our roadways for an entire year
- Planting more than 432,000 trees
- Recycling 5,830 tons of waste, which would otherwise be in a landfill
- Neutralizing yearly energy usage for 2,115 homes
And here are some of the organizations we support in their efforts to keep mother earth beautiful:
