Protecting the Places We Play With Work
As a creative and designer, I’ve steered my career around the worlds I love: action sports and the outdoors. While doing so, brand collaboration has become a large part of my day-to-day, making it a priority of mine to learn companies’ missions and goals. I do this to ensure we are on the same page. I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with brands whose products I not only prefer but whose missions and aspirations stretch outside of commerce. When I find a partner like that, I know I’ve found a match.That said, this past winter season I was enlisted by Clif Bar & Company to follow along on the first-of-its’-kind Mystery Bus Adventure Weekend—a 100% carbon neutral trip… destination unknown. (I know, what is that?? I had a few questions myself.) The more I learned about the project, the more I knew I wanted to be involved.
Magical Mystery Tour
Clif Bar partnered with OvrRide, the premier active outdoor experience provider, spearheading an initiative to carbon offset every OvrRide ski and surf bus trip by next season. This is a part of Clif Bar’s effort to inspire more companies to participate in climate-neutral business practices. Elysa Hammond, Director of Environmental Stewardship at Clif Bar, has been at the heart of these efforts for over 15 years. Currently, Clif Bar is working with Native Energy on the Ghana Clean Water Project, creating efficient water purification infrastructures resulting in lowered greenhouse emissions.
The Mystery Bus trip consisted of visiting eco-conscious companies and destinations. What made it a “mystery weekend” was that no one knew where we were going, only that it was a ski/boarding trip headed to the somewhere in the North East leaving from the bottom of NYC, which added to the excitement and fun of the trip. Stowe Mountain was the riding destination of choice—aside from having some of the most epic East Coast terrain, 50% of the power Stowe purchases is from renewable resources. As part of the educational portion of the trip, why not learn about and test highly sought after craft beers that are brewed in 100% solar powered facilities. Luckily The Alchemist Brewery has said beer and is only minutes away from Stowe, so we indulged. Before taking a stroll through Burlington at night, Burton HQ Vermont was the last stop and with great reason. Burton is another company leading the sustainability charge. Burton’s industry-leading partnership with bluesign ensures that not only the inputs into our product are made with the safest chemicals, but also that the air and water emissions from our processes are clean. They source 100% of its energy at HQ from renewable sources and in 2017 turned the Burton US Open a fully carbon neutral event.
Partnering with Clif Bar and OvrRide to be apart of this unique carbon neutral trip was only natural for us, and I think we all walked away from this experience with some epic stories and just a general hype for mother earth and all her glory.
-Caroline Janeway, Visual Merchandising and Marketing Lead Burton Snowboards Flagship Store NYC.
Filmed & Edited by Brian Adamkiewicz, Produced by JR Jensen
Clif’s Commitment By The Numbers
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- 100% renewable electricity sourced for all Clif facilities (HQ, bakeries, offices)
- 430 fuel-efficient hybrid and electric cars purchased to date by employees through Clif’s sustainability benefits program
- 42 supply chain facilities sourced 50% or more renewable electricity for Clif’s products and services.
- 135,000 trees planted with American Forests.
- 77% of all ingredients used are organic and/or certified sustainable
- 89% of waste stream is diverted from landfills or incinerators
- 100% green power for electricity for all Clif facilities
- In 2005 Clif Bar purchased enough carbon credits to retroactively neutralize all carbon emissions from Day 1 of Clif Bar
I am looking forward to following the initiative set forth by Clif Bar and Ovride to offset all trips by next year. Although we might not see changes tomorrow or the next day, it is the impact we leave today that will affect generations to come. Carbon offsetting and climate-neutral business practices like Clif Bar’s are important to the legacy our generation will leave. It is great to see more companies making practices like these a part of their core mission. For those of us who love working and playing in the skiing, boarding, surfing, MTB, boating, outdoor industries—or even simply taking walks in the park—every little bit of what we do counts… down to the brands and business we support and work with.
