The Daily - August 12,2021 - 22

Ideas
B I G N E W S
Five years later, they have. With
community, time, and skills, you
can pool and share resources-
emotional, financial, and physical.
BGC filed for LLC status and
built a membership structure
that allowed Black and Brown
women to host meetups around
the country to climb, share skills,
and find mentorship. In 2017,
Lebewitz, with BGC and Mikhail
Martin of Brothers of Climbing
founded Color the Crag, an annual
climbing festival for people of color
hosted at Horse Pens 40 in Steele,
Alabama. By 2018, BGC had
corporate sponsors-well-known
climbing brands like Evolv, Mountain
Hardwear, and Scarpa-and
BGC saw another opportunity to
CLEAN BREAK
Polartec Eliminates PFAS
in its DWR.
By Berne Broudy
Polartec, creator and purveyor of
some of the outdoor industry's
most technical, innovative, and
sustainable textiles, announced
that it has eliminated PFAS (perand
polyfluoralkyl substances) in
its DWR (durable water repellent)
treatments across its line of
performance fabrics.
Allow us to translate. The
chemicals in the waterproof
treatment used on most outdoor
fabrics intended to repel
weather historically have been
both toxic and bioaccumulating.
According to the EPA, " There
is evidence that exposure to
PFAS can lead to adverse health
outcomes in humans. If humans,
or animals, ingest PFAS (by
eating or drinking food or water
that contain PFAS), the PFAS are
absorbed, and can accumulate
in the body. PFAS stay in the
human body for long periods of
time. As a result, as people are
exposed to PFAS from different
sources over time, the level of
22
connect people with more resources
to people with less.
Sponsors will often offer discounts
on their gear to affiliates,
and BGC decided to pass those
discounts on to its members-the
Black and Brown women who
could really use them. At the
same time, BGC was already
crowdsourcing and researching
BIPOC-owned products and
businesses. BGC began sharing its
lists as a BIPOC holiday gift guide.
" People love that list, " says Lebewitz.
" We love it. We get to share
cool companies. Companies love it
because they don't have the same
Instagram reach, so we expand
their reach to outdoor folks and
travel folks. "
The Marketplace, BGC's new
platform, combines these two
aspects of BGC's business and
community model. It offers climbers
access to discounted rates on
climbing and technical gear from
well-known outdoors brands and
highlights brands that are BIPOC-,
women-, or queer-owned,
or have been vetted by BGC as
environmentally or socially conscious.
When it launches fully-expected
to be in the fall of 2021-
the Marketplace will be open to
the public.
The Marketplace will help make
BGC financially sustainable for
the women who run it, who have
poured thousands of hours of unpaid
time and energy into building
PFAS in their bodies may increase
to the point where they suffer
from adverse health effects. " Like
its cousin chemicals PFOA and
PFOS, once it's in your body, it's
there for the long haul.
It's not just the outdoor industry
that uses these chemicals.
And the outdoor industry has
been working hard for more
than a decade to get PFAS and
other toxic chemicals out of the
manufacturing of jackets, tents,
sleeping bags, and more. But
most alternatives haven't worked
as well, forcing brands to choose
between the health of their customers
and the planet, and the
performance of their gear.
Polartec announced that it
has eliminated PFAS from its
production, and that it has replaced
PFAS-based DWR with
an alternate nontoxic treatment
that maintains durability and
water repellency to the highest
standard. In developing the new
treatment, Polartec prioritized
performance and longevity in its
DWR, characteristics that have
challenged fabric companies for
decades as they tried to provide
outdoor recreationalists the
/ OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2021
a community. But scaling it up will
take more time and labor-hence,
the campaign.
With just over a week left to
fundraise as of the writing of this
article, BGC was nearly halfway
to its $100,000 goal. The funds
raised will go toward staff positions,
operational costs, consulting fees,
and deliverables (a donation can get
you delightful BGC swag). Payment,
in other words, for providing the
resources that our greater climbing
community needs, if it is going to
continue to grow.
To stay updated on the crowdfunding
campaign and the Marketplace,
follow @BrownGirlsClimb on
Instagram or become a member at
browngirlsclimb.com.
Polartec
fabric
water-beading weather protection
they wanted and expected
without polluting the planet.
" Trial results have exceeded
our expectations, " said Mike
Rose, Polartec VP of Product Development.
" There is no loss of
performance from a water repellency
or durability standpoint. "
The inspiration for shifting to
non-PFAS DWR treatments is
giving Polartec customers what
they want while also staying
ahead of the curve of popular
opinion and legislation.
Transferring to non-PFAS
DWR treatments is a part of Polartec's
Eco-Engineering initiatives
and Milliken & Company's
(Polartec's parent company)
long-term targets for corporate
responsibility.
Castelli, Kolon, Specialized,
and other brands are already
using Polartec's non-PFAS DWR
treatments on their Polartec
NeoShell styles.
For more, visit polartec.com
COURTESY POLARTEC
http://www.browngirlsclimb.com http://www.polartec.com
The Daily - August 12,2021

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