2017 Impact On Sustainability
Home Looptworks Blog 2017 Impact On Sustainability

Thanks to our friends, partners and fans, we made a substantial impact in 2017. Making and upcycling products from excess materials, we conserved natural resources and offset our impact on the environment.

2017 Natural Resource Savings, by the Numbers

By creating products from quality materials that already exist, we avoided having to create virgin materials. 2,300,517 gallons of water were saved by upcycling. We also kept 2,530 lbs of quality materials from being incinerated or ending up in landfills.

Excess / deadstock in India, in the process of being upcycled into event t-shirts for our friends at Cycle Oregon

A cotton t-shirt takes over 400 gallons of water to produce from raw materials...  Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone in the US chose one upcycled product?

According to the US Census Bureau, the current population of the US is 327,093,382. If all of us chose one upcycled tee over a virgin cotton tee, we would save a staggering 130,837,352,800 gallons of water!

Offsetting the impact of shipping

2017 marked another milestone for us; with your help, we further reduced our carbon footprint and the impact of shopping online with a new program in partnership with our friends at BEF.

Pioneers in this new program, we began offering the option to contribute towards the purchase of carbon offsets to reduce the impact of shipping goods. (four other companies have followed in our footsteps to join the Checkout Checkbox program!)

Thanks to contributions by 94 of our customers, 12 carbon offset purchases were purchased, removing 26,000 pounds of carbon! 

This year, we chose to focus on cow poop offsets! That's right, we are now discussing cow pies. 


B6 Dairy Farm BioFactory Project, Gooding, Idaho

The B6 Dairy Farm BioFactory Project consists of the installation of anaerobic digester and generator at the B6 (Bettencourt 6) dairy farm in Idaho. The digester captures methane-rich biogas emanating from the anaerobic decay of the dairy manure that would have otherwise been emitted into the atmosphere. The project also produces renewable electricity from the biogas produced in the digester. The carbon credits from this project are derived from the capture of methane.
 
 If you're interested in reading more, here is a great article from OPB - The Power of Poop!  This isn't the same facility, but it's the same technology.


We're in this together

In addition to conserving resources, jobs were created here in Portland. We invested in domestic manufacturing this year to take on more projects utilizing post-consumer excess, and while we have had some hiccups along the way, (they are close to being caught up with backorders, thank you all for your patience!) we’re poised to make even larger strides in 2018.

2017 also was a year filled with partnerships. Some of the highlights include:
  • We expanded our partnership with Alaska Airlines and expanded our Carry-On collection from the Horizon Airlines seat covers to include the blue leather from the Alaska Airlines Fleet
  • Our partnership with Southwest Airlines continues, with an additional container of retired leather seat covers arriving in our warehouse, providing jobs in our local economy
  • Power of the Purse - we returned for our second year for the local fundraiser for Girls Inc of the Pacific Northwest, helping empower girls to be strong, smart and bold
  • Building on the success of our program with the Portland Trail Blazers, we’ve been in talks with the NBA .. an exciting development with more TBA.

 

Here's to a fantastic 2018!

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