2018 Sustainability Report-Text Only

LINK TO PDF VERSION OF 2018 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

At RepYourWater, our mantra is “Fish. Explore. Conserve.” We know that we can’t fish and explore if we don’t conserve the resource first, which is why we donate 3% of our annual sales to our nonprofit conservation partners, but that’s only the beginning.  We know that climate change is the greatest threat to fisheries around the world, which is why we are working to reduce waste sent to the landfill and reduce our carbon footprint.

Our reason for taking responsibility for our company’s environmental impact is simple…We want to be able to live by our mantra of “Fish. Explore. Conserve.” for many years to come by providing top quality apparel that inspires our customers to do the same, all while supporting our nonprofit conservation partners and minimizing our environmental impact.  Join us!

 

A Message from our Co-Founders

We are both Colorado natives who grew up hiking, camping, fishing and exploring the beautiful mountains of the West.  We started RepYourWater as a way to marry our passion for art, fly fishing, hunting and the outdoors.  We soon realized that because of our love for these wild animals and beautiful places that we had a responsibility to give back to regional conservation nonprofits who are working to protect what we love.

 

2018 was another exciting year for us at RepYourWater.  We introduced some exciting new products, like our flannels and vests, as well as Fishmasks made from recycled plastic bottles.  We even managed to save a few hundred trout from our local creek who had been trapped!  However, we are increasingly seeing the impacts of climate change on our fisheries here in the West with more stream closures, warmer river temperatures and increases in wildfires.  We know that our business contributes to climate change which is why we are thrilled to have offset 100% of our office and warehouse greenhouse gas emissions in 2018! 

 

We continue to measure the success of our business not by how much we can profit, but by how much we can give back and we would like to thank all of our customers for your continued support.  We have some exciting new products and announcements to make in 2019 and we hope you continue to follow us on our sustainability journey as we work towards achieving our 2020 Sustainability Goals.

 

Tight lines,

Corinne & Garrison Doctor

 

Who We Are Today

RepYourWater is proud to be a Colorado born and bred business and founded on a solid conservation-minded foundation, which is as strong today as it was when we started the company back in 2011.  RepYourWater continues to demonstrate our values by giving back to our nonprofit conservation partners, improving the environmental performance of our operations and products and providing our customers with apparel that allows them to rep their values!

 

OUR MISSION:

RepYourWater is dedicated to providing uniquely designed, top quality gear for anglers and hunters while increasing support of local conservation and inspiring exploration. 

 

CONSERVATION:

We donate at least 3% of every sale to conservation.  Through partnerships with many nonprofits, we are doing our part to be sure that the natural world around us and the activities that it provides for us as sportsmen and women will be here for years to come. 

 

 

Why Do We Care?

We are Coloradans and are fortunate to be constantly reminded of nature’s beauty being surrounded by the Rocky Mountains and seemingly endless miles of rivers and streams full of trout, so we feel it is our responsibility to not only protect our home waters, but show our respect by treading lightly as a company.  We are certainly not perfect, but we will always strive to do our best to leave no trace because it is our way of expressing our gratitude for all Mother Nature has given to us.

 

Climate change is the greatest threat our planet faces today, which is why we are working to reduce our carbon footprint and improve the environmental performance of our operations and products. As human population grows, so does the demand for natural resources.  For example, natural resources just like the deposits of gold and copper in Bristol Bay at the proposed Pebble Mine, which is why we support the efforts to Save Bristol Bay.  However, just as all toxic mine waste eventually leaks and contaminates our fisheries, so do the landfills where we send the trash from our homes and businesses, which is why we are diverting our waste from the landfill by recycling and composting.

 

Supporting our nonprofit conservation partners is part of our mission, which is why we proudly give back to all of them through volunteer hours and donations because they are working hard to protect and conserve resources for future generations.

 

We are a business that is dependent upon a healthy environment, so we feel that supporting conservation organizations, in addition to improving the environmental performance of our operations and products, is the least we can do to express our gratitude to all the Earth has given to us.  RepYourWater will always continuously strive towards achieving our sustainability goals and we are proud to share with you, our 2018 Sustainability Results which, hopefully, demonstrates our commitment towards a sustainable future.

 

 

 

Monetary Donation - $53,700 donated to nonprofit conservation partners

Volunteer Hours – 52 hours donated to nonprofit conservation partners

 

Environmental Impacts

Waste Diverted from Landfill: 95% by weight

Electricity purchased from zero emission RECs: 100%

 

Environmental Impact

We began measuring the environmental impact of our operations in 2016 to create a baseline to measure our progress in working towards achieving our 2020 Sustainability Goals. We started by measuring our energy and waste from our headquarters. In an effort to be transparent with our customers, the reason we did not measure our water usage is because we share our water bill with three other businesses that lease from the same building, but we have installed aerators in our bathroom and kitchen faucets to conserve water. Below is how we are measuring our energy and waste:

 

Energy: We are measuring our environmental impact by reducing our carbon footprint through offsetting our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with renewable energy credits (RECs). We are stoked to announce that in 2018 we offset 100% of our GHG emissions from our purchased electricity at our headquarters through the purchase of RECs! Below is our 2016 (GHG) Emissions Baseline and 2017 and 2018 GHG Emissions Total measured in metric tons of CO2 equivalent (mtCO2e):

 

2016: 7.49 metric tons of CO2

2017: 3.87 metric tons of CO2

2018: 0.00 metric tons of CO2

 

What does this really mean? We know climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mtCO2e) is a metric used to compare different GHG’s compared with their global warming potential. So, our 2016 baseline of 7.49 mtCO2e is the equivalent of the carbon sequestered from 8.8 acres of U.S. forests in one year. Compared to our baseline, we cut our 2017 mtCO2e by 48%, which means we had a smaller carbon footprint.  In 2017 our total was 3.87 mtCO2e which is the equivalent of the carbon sequestered from 4.6 acres of U.S. forests in one year.  However, in 2018 we could not be prouder to announce that we eliminated our carbon footprint from purchased electricity at our headquarters meaning that we are saving our fisheries from the negative impacts of climate change by purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs)!

 

Waste: We are also measuring our environmental impact by diverting waste from landfills. In 2018 we diverted over 95% of our waste from the landfill and by recycling, composting and even sending plastic bags to the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) located in Boulder, CO! Below is our total waste measured in pounds:

 

2018 Waste Recycled: 4,823 lbs

2018 Waste Composted: 111.90 lbs

2018 Waste to Landfill: 220.90 lbs

2018 Plastic Bags Recycled: 61 lbs

2018 Waste Total: 5,216.80 lbs

 

Why is this important? We are working to divert as much waste as possible from being sent to the landfill because we know that with worldwide population growing it’s imperative to minimize our waste. We also know that adding compost to soil helps restore organic nutrients and improves water retention in soil.  If we hadn’t recycled and composted, we would have sent 5,216 lbs of trash to the landfill. Instead, we recycled and composted +95% of our waste, which we feel is not only the responsible thing to do, but also provides nutrient-rich soil for our garden and that helps to reduce food miles travelled!

 

Social Impact

Giving back is the foundation that RepYourWater was built upon, and we measure our social impact by donating 3% of our annual sales to our nonprofit conservation partners and the number of employee volunteer hours. In 2018 we donated $53.7K to our conservation partners and volunteered 52 hours to Colorado Trout Unlimited. We are grateful that we are able to help organizations working to protect what we love!

How We Give Back

Since our inception in 2011, we made conservation a key component of our business. Just as our designs started in Colorado, so did our conservation partners. We teamed up with Colorado Trout Unlimited within a few weeks of selling our first hats and the list of products and conservation partners has grown from there. We now donate 3% of every purchase of our gear to our conservation partners.

 

 

In addition to Colorado Trout Unlimited, RepYourWater donates 3% of sales of corresponding designs to: the Trout Unlimited chapters of Canada, Wyoming, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Southeastern Conservation Project, New Mexico and Connecticut; Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Chapters in Utah, Alaska and Montana; the Wild Steelhead Coalition, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Delta Waterfowl Idaho Wildlife Federation, Boundary Waters Trust, the Billfish Foundation, The Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, Beyond the Pond and the Great Lakes Regional Center of NWF.

 

Where We Are Headed: 2020 Sustainability Goals

We know that as human population grows, so does our demand for resources and we want to do everything we can to conserve natural resources so that we can follow our passion for hunting, fishing and an active outdoor lifestyle. We want to make sure that RepYourWater is going beyond financially supporting our nonprofit conservation partners.  We also want to lead by example by doing our part to conserve energy and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, as well as reducing the amount of waste we send to the landfill. It is very important to have measurable and attainable sustainability goals so that we can transparently share our environmental and social impact with our customers. RepYourWater is thrilled to share our progress towards our 2020 Sustainability Goals with you:

 

Environmental Sustainability Goals:

Offset 100% GHG emissions from purchased electricity

Divert 95% of our waste from landfill

 

Social Sustainability Goals:

Donate 250,000 total to our nonprofit conservation partners

Volunteer 200 hours total to nonprofit conservation partners

 

We couldn’t be prouder to share that we have achieved both of our 2020 Environmental Sustainability Goals ahead of schedule.  We are working towards achieving our 2020 Social Sustainability Goals and have achieved 74% of our $250K donation goal and since we started measuring our volunteer hours, we have accomplished 59% of our volunteer goal!

 

As we look beyond 2020, RepYourWater will begin measuring the environmental and social impact of our supply chain and products, but made a decision to begin our sustainability journey by measuring what impact we can make immediately. We are proud of the progress we have made as a company thus far and look forward to improving our environmental and social performance so that we can continue to provide our customers with top quality gear that makes a positive impact!