With environmental and social sustainability at the forefront of the public consciousness today, the outdoor industry is beginning to take the first steps to provide a measurable, legitimate program to authenticate companies that are working to keep their products as clean as possible.

While the program is still in he early steps, 70 representatives from 34 companies convened in Boulder last week to discuss options and methods for measuring each product’s environmental impact.

According to OIA, the two-day meeting provided background on environmental production standards in other industries such as SC Johnson’s Green List and Energy Star, then examined next steps for developing an outdoor industry program.

Frank Hugelmeyer, OIA’s president & CEO, said that he has seen the industry band together over different issues before, but there has never been as much passion over one issue among so many competing companies. While OIA did not launch this eco-initiative, they did facilitate the event and brought in experts from the electronics industry and other areas outside of the outdoor industry to speak of their experiences in launching programs like Energy Star and LEEDS.

“The outdoor industry has expressed interest to OIA in the development of a Working Group around sustainability and environmental production issues for some time,” said Ann Obenchain, director of member services and marketing for OIA. “The leadership of REI and Timberland, along with the critical mass of numerous companies demonstrating action is what really got the group going.”

REI was one of the major driving forces behind establishing this working group, along with Timberland and Keen. Last month, REI issued a report that focused on the co-op’s efforts to create a greener and more socially responsible retail chain. The report also addresses issues that could have far reaching impacts throughout the outdoor industry. These initiatives include creating new standards in environmental labeling and packaging, and a standardized restricted substances list for REI vendors.

This report helped pull the industry together behind the issue of standardizing environmental sustainability. According to several members of the working group, the speakers that presented offered a great deal of solid, actionable information, but they also agreed that the process of standardization for an issue as big as sustainability will take at least three to five years.