How the European Outdoor Group Is Driving Carbon Reduction in the Outdoor Industry Through Relationships and Transparency

How the European Outdoor Group Is Driving Carbon Reduction in the Outdoor Industry Through Relationships and Transparency

By: Dr. Verity Hardy, Sustainability Project Manager, European Outdoor Group

Article key points: 

• The European Outdoor Group (EOG) serves as the voice of the outdoor industry in Europe, representing a diverse membership of brands, retailers, NGOs, and manufacturing organizations.
• The EOG’s Carbon Reduction Project brings together brands to collectively address high-impact areas in their supply chains, amplifying the voices of smaller and medium-sized companies.
• The pre-competitive collaborative initiative has been running since 2021, with the original pilot group of ten brands still meeting regularly and demonstrating strong commitment.
• Transparency between brands and suppliers is essential for the project’s success, enabling shared facility assessments and cost-sharing arrangements.
• The project emphasizes practical action plans and ongoing relationships with suppliers rather than simply collecting data without follow-through.

The European Outdoor Group: A collective voice for sustainability

The European Outdoor Group (EOG) is a membership organization representing the interests of the outdoor industry. Our diverse membership includes brands, retailers, NGOs, national associations, universities, manufacturing organizations, and circularity organizations. Together, we work toward the common goal of maintaining and improving outdoor environments so people can continue to enjoy outdoor activities.

Our members have a unique relationship with the natural world because their businesses depend on thriving outdoor spaces. If mountains aren’t covered in snow, or natural environments degrade, consumers won’t need outdoor gear to enjoy these spaces. This creates an innate understanding of the need to address climate change that goes beyond financial considerations. For most people in our industry, a love of the outdoors is baked into their ethos. They’re avid users of the products they create and genuinely want to preserve these spaces for future generations.

EOG’s Carbon Reduction Project

As a Sustainability Project Manager at the EOG, I’ve had the privilege of overseeing our Carbon Reduction Project for the past three and a half years. After earning my PhD and working in academia I joined EOG in early 2020. I brought my technical textile background to the organization to help the outdoor industry face its sustainability challenges through managing our Climate Action Programme. 

The Carbon Reduction Project emerged at a time when EOG members began increasingly voicing their concerns about their climate impact and carbon footprint. They were realizing that this wasn’t just something they needed to do for business reasons, or because it was popular. They needed to address their own impacts on climate change to preserve the outdoors for future generations.

Around this time, EOG also conducted some research to understand where the outdoor industry’s biggest environmental impacts in terms of manufacturing and production existed. Once we identified those areas, the next thought was whether EOG could act as a neutral entity and bring members together to collectively address the areas of highest impact. We recognized that while individual brands might struggle to address these issues alone, collective action could make a significant difference.

Launching the pilot program

When we launched the pilot program in late 2021, we had only a loose idea of how it might work. We tested the emerging project methodology at every stage with our pilot group, keeping what worked and adjusting what didn’t. This flexible approach has allowed the project to evolve organically based on real-world experience.

We deliberately avoided setting specific numerical goals, such as percentage reductions in emissions or increases in renewable energy usage. With brands of different sizes at different stages of their sustainability journeys, a one-size-fits-all metric wouldn’t be meaningful. Instead, we encourage brands to align with science-based targets and push for maximum possible improvements rather than settling for minimum compliance.

Our pilot group members’ commitment speaks volumes about the value they see in this project. The same ten brands that started in late 2021 still meet every other week, and many have joined subsequent cohorts as well. This long-term engagement demonstrates that the collaborative approach is delivering real benefits. After all, our members aren’t being paid to participate in the Carbon Reduction Project, and they’re often doing more than meeting minimum regulatory requirements. Our members are truly involved because they see the value in reducing emissions and increasing renewable energy use as much as possible for the good of the future. 

How the project works: From mapping to mitigation

The reduction project follows a structured process to drive measurable results:

1. Supplier mapping: Brands share their supplier lists—either complete lists or their most strategically important partners—and the EOG maps these to identify shared facilities among brands.
2. Facility assessments: We work with external partners to assess the shared facilities, examining energy usage and emission profiles.
3. Action planning: Based on the assessments, we develop action plans detailing how facilities can address high-impact areas.
4. Collaborative mitigation: Brands work together to implement the actions identified in the plans.
5. Ongoing monitoring: We continue to monitor facilities to track progress and make adjustments as needed.

This approach avoids the common pitfall of collecting data that then sits unused, never providing value. We recognize that gathering data requires time and effort from facilities that are already busy and under pressure. By ensuring the data leads to concrete actions and improvements, we create value for both brands and suppliers.

The power of collaborative action

One of the most powerful aspects of this project is how it amplifies the voices of smaller and medium-sized companies. Unlike enormous fashion brands that might be able to influence changes in their supply chain on their own, our members are typically smaller entities. By bringing together multiple small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a unified message, their collective voice becomes more influential when engaging suppliers in productive dialogues around sustainability. 

Transparency is essential to success

This project couldn’t work without transparency from the brands that participate. Since we are a pre-competitive collaborative initiative, we don’t discuss production volumes or costs, or details that could be considered competitive intelligence. But brands must be willing to share who they work with. 

For suppliers, transparency means being able to be honest about their capacity to implement changes. They need to be able to communicate when they can’t move forward with particular actions, whether due to strategic, financial, or infrastructure limitations.

Without this multilayered transparency, improvement would be impossible. We need to know where we are to determine how far we need to go and whether we’re making progress.

Creating value for suppliers

While brands may be a large driving force in the EOG’s Carbon Reduction Project, suppliers are the ones more directly in control of when, where, and how changes can be implemented. It’s therefore important for us to maintain dialogue with the suppliers our members work with. 

In the years since the project’s inception, the EOG has received encouraging feedback from the suppliers involved in the Carbon Reduction Project. Many have expressed appreciation for the project, noting that it helps them gather valuable data they might not have had the resources to collect independently. The assessments and action plans have helped them focus and prioritize their future strategic directions regarding renewable energy and emissions reduction.

Making progress together

After three and a half years managing this project, I’m deeply impressed by the commitment, motivation, and loyalty our participating brands and suppliers demonstrate. This project costs them money and time without direct financial returns, yet they remain engaged because they genuinely want to do the right thing.

The outdoor industry faces unique challenges in addressing climate change, but also has unique motivations to preserve the environments on which it depends. By working together, sharing resources, and maintaining transparency, we’re making progress that would be difficult, if not impossible, for individual companies to achieve alone.

The Carbon Reduction Project exemplifies how collaboration can drive meaningful change in an industry deeply connected to the natural world. As we continue to grow and evolve this initiative, we’re creating a model for how smaller and medium-sized companies can collectively make a significant impact on one of the most pressing challenges of our time.

About Verity Hardy

Since 2020, Verity has been managing the European Outdoor Group’s climate action work, building long-term collaborative partnerships with member organisations and external stakeholders to support progress towards globally agreed climate targets within the outdoor industry.

She manages the Carbon Reduction Project, bringing brands together to address their supply chain emissions and renewable energy use; the Single Use Plastics Project, where brands and retailers take responsibility for their poly bags; and facilitates the work of the Outdoor Retailer Climate Commitment.

With a background in technical textiles research and project management, she has attained over 20 years’ experience in both industry and academia. In previous roles she has combined high level theoretical knowledge of textile raw materials, processing and manufacturing techniques, with well-honed textile characterization and analysis skills, making advances in textile materials.

In her spare time she is a keen gardener and enjoys long walks in the countryside.