Environmental and Fair Trade Policy

At Base Outdoors we are committed to providing useful well-constructed products designed to enable you to explore the great outdoors and unlock amazing adventures.

We have started this company because of our love of the outdoors and our desire to create a business that both enables us to continue our adventures, allows others to have their own adventures and also becomes a driver of positive environmental and social change. We believe that conscious consumers have real power to drive change by their purchasing choices. By supporting a business that is encouraging fair trade, has clear environmental policies and supports local industry you are indeed driving change by encouraging more business's to move in this direction.

The more we have explored the outdoors, the more we appreciate the natural world and also understand our responsibilities to try and help protect these fragile environments, and all the unique life contained within them. We are determined to create a business that supports organisations that are out there making a real difference. We can only do this with your support as we are directly competing with large business manufacturing their products with extremely low offshore labour costs.

Its is easy to say that a product is "environmentally friendly" this is all too common these days with modern marketing strategies. In reality, every product we purchase has an environmental cost, and there is always a balancing act between performance, price and the true environmental cost of its production, useful lifespan and the eventual end of life.
When products are designed for the outdoors this balancing act is even more challenging. The extremes of climate and distance often mean that synthetic materials must be used which all have their environmental cost. We believe that the awareness of these issues paramount and to be continually looking for better more environmentally friendly alternatives.

SUPPORTING CONSERVATION EFFORTS

FOREST & BIRD

At Base Outdoors we are committed to supporting conservation efforts in all areas that our products are being sold. In New Zealand, we are very proud to be supporting Forest & Bird who are out in the field fighting hard to protect our native flora and fauna and natural environments. Forest and Bird is New Zealand's leading independent conservation organisation protecting and restoring our wildlife and wild places for future generations. Base Outdoors donates 8% of the sale value of our Merino products directly to Forest & Bird to help them continue this vital work. Please visit their website to find out a little more about their projects and conservation work.

Below are our Environmental and Fair Trade commitments:

PRODUCTS WE MANUFACTURE

To wherever possible manufacture our products in the market in which they are being sold and support local industry. If sales in any country outside New Zealand reach a sufficient level, we will investigate producing products for that market in that country so that we will be supporting their local industry.
To look for the most environmentally friendly method of production possible.
To use natural products and materials wherever possible. If synthetic materials must be utilised for performance reasons, ensure that the goods are constructed to a very high standard to maximise their lifespan and carefully explain to our customers how to care for and dispose of the product correctly.
To reduce or remove all unnecessary synthetic marketing and packaging materials.
To choose local manufacturers that are operating safe workplaces for their workers and have clear environmental policies in place.
To continually look to improve on these standards as new products and manufacturing techniques evolve over time.
To support organisations that are helping protect our natural environment.

PRODUCTS WE SOURCE FROM OTHER SUPPLIERS

To research the supplier to ensure they have clear environmental policies and are producing products of the highest quality.
To ensure that our suppliers are producing their products that are free from child labour.
To test these products in New Zealand conditions to ensure they are up to the task.
To encourage our suppliers to reduce or remove all unnecessary synthetic marketing and packaging materials.
To ship all products with clear instructions on how to dispose of the product correctly at the end of its life.

We hope this information helps you understand the values of this business. We are always interested in your feedback and ideas on how we can improve in these areas, so please feel free to contact us directly.

Thanks from all the team at Base Outdoors.