Here at the Outdoor Gear Exchange we try and stay true to our environmental mission in as many aspects of our operations as possible. During our daily operation here at the Outdoor Gear Exchange besides the customary recycling and turning lights off when they are not in use we try and go the extra mile in a number of different ways.

First of all here at the OGE and Gearx.com we believe that reusing material is better than recycling. If you have bought things from Gearx.com in the past you have probably noticed that your new tent or jacket probably came in a old Clif bar or Scarpa Telemark Boot box. While this might not be the most slightly practice we here at the OGE feel that it is foolish to recycle boxes from our manufacturers and buy new boxes to ship things to you. By doing this we keep our recycling volume to a minimum and with the money we save not buying boxes is just adds to the saving we as a company can pass on to you!

Plastic Bag Program

A serious byproduct of the retail world are plastic bags. They are ubiquitous and are almost always discarded after the short walk home or to the car. We decided that we wanted to confront the problem and make a positive change while we encourage our customers to bring their own shopping bags. Thus the OGE Bag program was born. The way it works is when a customer checks out we ask them if they would like a bag and mention that if they don’t take a bag we will donate a nickel to a local environmental non-profit. We rotate the selected organization monthly. This frequently convinces people not to take a bag and has lead to significant accumulations of nickels for our chosen organizations.

Some of the results of this program include $92.78 going to the Green Mountain Club in July with a savings of 1,856 plastic bags; Local Motion received $71.97 in September with a savings of 1,440 plastic bags and in November and December 171.54 went to the Catamount Trail Association with a savings of 3,431 Bags! It is a small step that has had some great effects.

prAna Natural Power Initiative

prAna is one of our biggest suppliers here at the OGE they are a great company who make really attractive clothing accessories for climbing and Yoga. They have a program called The Natural Power Initiative whose eventual goal is to buy enough wind credits to make all prAna manufacturing facilities and participating retail stores operate off of Wind power. They currently have their head offices as well as 250 retail stores across the country running on wind power. We here at the OGE are proud to be a part of this program and thank prAna for their continuing effort to have a positive impact. To read more about The Natural Power Initiative Click Here

Carbon Zero

Carbon Zero is a student based initiative with the goal of reducing and off setting carbon emission through conservation, the utilization of renewable energies and carbon sequestration through ecologic restoration. The project uses models developed by John Todd a professor at University of Vermont and is partnered with a ecologic restoration program in Costa Rica called El Centro Verde which is replanting the Rio Andamojo watershed. Learn more about their program Click Here