The Daily - August 10, 2021 - 30

FEATURE 1
A bird's eye
view of the
Ruined Castle
Fire in the Blue
Mountains, near
Katoomba,
Australia
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Looking forward to 2022, CAC
members are now diving into
their scope 3 emissions and deliberating
on how to follow through
on their mission to become " climate
positive. "
Scope 3 emissions, which don't
come from company-owned assets,
are harder to weed out than scope
1 and 2 emissions. " It's going to be
difficult; there's no sugar coating it,
it's going to be hard, " Horton says.
But brands are already looking for
ways to innovate, and the progress
corps members made in year one is
a morale boost. " It gives me a lot of
hope for where we can be this time
next year, " she says.
Going climate positive has been
a goal of the CAC from the start,
and it's a mission that sets the
outdoor industry apart. In other
industries, serious industry-wide
emissions goals are rare, and
(where they exist at all) can target
using technologies that don't exist
at scale yet, like direct-air carbon
capture, or call for carbon offsets
from questionable sources-and
which in turn let emitters keep
emitting. A year in, the CAC is now
starting to look at the gritty details
of defining what it will mean to be
climate positive.
" We put that out there (in 2020)
because in a world of 'net zero,'
'negative,' 'neutral,' it seemed like
because the outdoor industry
creates so many positive benefits
30
/ OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2021
for society, it just made sense we
would double down on conservation
as a climate solution, " Horton
says. Now she's encouraging discourse
around the term and three
planks the CAC has envisioned
thus far: reduce, remove, advocate.
" Ultimately we want companies to
be setting a science-based target,
removing more than they emit,
and advocating. " (Advocacy is
included because while an individual
company's carbon footprint
matters, advocacy for climate policy
is what will move the needle on
global emissions, shifting utilities
onto renewables, transportation
to EVs, and preserving land and
water for conservation.)
In the meantime, members of
the CAC are trying to tackle their
emissions goals for 2021, a time
when participation is still high and
Climate Action Corps is
working to create more
sustainable supply chains.
Amy Horton, OIA
senior director of
sustainable business
innovation
" ULTIMATELY WE WANT COMPANIES
TO BE SETTING A SCIENCE-BASED
TARGET, REMOVING MORE THAN THEY
EMIT, AND ADVOCATING. "
-AMY HORTON, OIA
the COVID-19 pandemic is still
warping the supply chain.
" We're having COVID-19 shutdowns
again. Our Vietnam office-
they can't even go into the office, "
Jones says. " Right now, it's a climate
where suppliers are telling you what
their price increases are-where two
years ago they'd be scrambling for
more orders. Now they're saying, we
can't take any more orders, and by
the way your price is going up 15%. "
Growth is a big part of the
current conversation in the CAC,
Horton says.
" A lot of our companies are
growing rapidly, and it's going to
be a challenge to maintain those
growth curves and then reduce
at the same time without really
deploying renewables at scale,
low-carbon materials at scale, and
even rethinking entire business
models to be able to grow without
necessarily making new. "
" You have to look at other models, "
she says. " Ultimately, we have
to innovate in that space. "
FROM TOP LEFT: RICK LANG, BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, CARLO NASISSE, COURTESY OIA
The Daily - August 10, 2021

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