Watch our discussion about the retail sales trends that dominated the outdoor industry in 2023, our forecasted trends for 2024, and how you can leverage retail sales data to make informed decisions and drive revenue growth.
Continue readingWebinar: Consumer Products Legal Trends: PFAS, Greenwashing, and Class Actions
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Members-Only Webinar: Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. (MT)
Please join OIA and Ballard Spahr for this partner webinar. Especially in the outdoor industries, many companies have tried to improve their environmental stance and, understandably, make those efforts public. The recent wave of litigation relating to PFAS (aka “forever chemicals”) has taken aim at common marketing claims—such as labeling products as “sustainable,” “organic,” or “natural”—when trace amounts of PFAs are allegedly found. Federal and state regulations targeting PFAS in both the environment and consumer products have further complicated the legal landscape. Luckily, there are practical steps that companies can take to mitigate these risks while still recognizing the benefits of their environmental advancements. This webinar will discuss the unique compliance and legal challenges facing the outdoor industry related to PFAS and greenwashing claims, as well as basic steps companies can take.
Webinar: Measure Your Greenhouse Gas Emissions with Climate Neutral’s BEE Tool
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Members-Only Webinar: Wednesday, September 27 2:00-3:00pm MT
Are you looking to begin measuring your company’s greenhouse gas emissions, but don’t know where to start? Join the OIA Climate Action Corps team and the Climate Neutral team to learn how to measure your emissions with Climate Neutral’s Business Emissions Evaluator Tool (BEE Tool). Participants will receive a brief overview of greenhouse gas measurement, and then will receive an overview and demonstration of the BEE Tool. Q&A will follow. All OIA members are welcome. A friendly reminder: OIA Support + Members receive 25% off the annual BEE Tool License with their membership. We hope to see you there!
Webinar: Deep Dive: 2023 Outdoor Participation Trends Report
Members-only Webinar
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Date: June 29, 2023 at 1 pm MT
168.1 million – that’s how many Americans ages six and older participated in outdoor recreation in 2022. That’s a record high. Who’s driving this participation? And how are they participating? And where?
Join OIA’s Research Director Kelly Davis on June 29th for a deep dive into key insights from the report, including:
- The outdoor recreation participant base grew 2.3 percent in 2022 to a record 168.1 million participants or 55 percent of the U.S. population ages six and older.
- Although 2022 outdoor recreation included record numbers of participants and record high participation rates (especially amongst families and youth), the number of outings per participant declined in 2022 for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020.
- The outdoor recreation new participant base became more diverse in 2022 including increases in participation among Black people, Hispanic people, and LBGTQIA+ people.
- Eighty percent of outdoor activity categories experienced participation growth in 2022 including large categories like camping and fishing, and smaller categories like sport climbing and skateboarding.
Together we are a force for insight. Join us.
Webinar: Introducing OIA’s New Clean Chemistry and Materials Coalition
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Live Date: July 13, 2023 at 1 pm MT
Are you ready to engage and support the outdoor industry’s journey to phase out and eliminate harmful chemistry in outdoor products? Watch our webinar to learn more about OIA’s new sustainability program, working group, and consulting service: Clean Chemistry and Materials Coalition (CCMC).
Whether you are just starting out on the trail or cresting the summit to PFAS elimination or other sustainability measures, OIA’s CCMC supports outdoor retailers, brands, manufacturers, and distributors with scalable action plans for eliminating and replacing harmful chemicals and materials, delivering supply chain transparency, recycling and emission disclosures, and more.
Watch our July 13th webinar to gain insight into what you can expect to achieve as part of OIA’s CCMC community. We introduce our team of technical experts and share why clean chemicals innovation is imperative for your brand, steps you can take towards PFAS elimination now, what that phase-out journey will look like, and how you can engage directly with our consultants and working groups to uncover reliable and durable alternatives.
Together we are catalysts for sustainable growth. Join us.
Panelists:
Sarah Rykal, Director of Sustainable Innovation, OIA
Michelle Legatt, Technical Advisor, OIA CCMC
As the Technical Advisor for OIA’s Clean Chemistry and Materials Coalition, Michelle assists OIA members in navigating chemicals management and sustainability initiatives throughout their supply chain. Prior to working with OIA, Michelle has spent the last 18 years working in innovation, product development, and sustainability roles at a variety of companies in the consumer goods sector.
James Pollack, Legislative Advisor, OIA CCMC
James Pollack serves as the Legislative Advisor for the OIA Clean Chemistry and Materials Coalition, assisting OIA members in understanding and navigating chemicals and sustainability compliance legislation and regulations. He is also an associate with Marten Law, leading the firm’s consumer products regulatory practice. He helps consumer product manufacturers in the apparel, outdoor, and food products industries who are working to understand the complicated and shifting regulatory and litigation environments surrounding emerging contaminants. James has extensive knowledge on PFAS regulatory compliance at the federal and state level.
Follow-Up Q&A
Suppliers have said they can provide C0 chemistry. Should we test these to the Total Organic Fluorine 50ppm threshold? Should we test these for individually testable PFAS?
Your testing decisions will depend on several factors. First, what is your goal and intention for the data? Testing C0 chemistry for ToF (Total Organic Flourine) may provide you with verification of supplier representations, or it can provide you with indications of PFAS unintentionally added or cross-contaminating your products. Testing for individual PFAS, in comparison, may help you understand what specific compounds are found in your products.
Second, what is your overall risk tolerance and communication strategy with regard to PFAS? Different laws have set different thresholds based on either ToF or particular PFAS. For only one example, California’s AB 1817 includes a phased set of ToF thresholds, including 100ppm and 50ppm depending on the year. If you are creating a compliance strategy, you may want to follow the thresholds provided by law. However, if you are looking to make marketing representations related to PFAS content, you may be interested in implementing a different set of thresholds. We look forward to discussing testing best practices and how different brands are approaching these issues at future CCMC events.
Are chemical companies working on alternative chemistries?
Yes, most chemical suppliers familiar with textile applications now offer PFAS-free alternatives. Other chemical suppliers, newly entering the market, have expertise in the alternative chemistry (ie silicones or polyurethanes). Additionally, a handful of new start-ups, incorporating other environmental co-benefits, have also launched PFAS-free solutions.
Can we expect to hear from experts at testing labs in upcoming webinars?
At least one of our upcoming Working Group Monthly meetings will focus on PFAS testing. We are exploring options for working with testing labs and will have more information available in the near future.
Will you have guidance for PFAS regulations in Europe?
Yes, we are partnering with the European Outdoor Group to provide updates on legislation in the EU. EOG staff will attend a CCMC Working Group meeting in October to provide information to CCMC members.
What materials/resources are available for CCMC members now?
- Educational one-pagers
- Legislative One-Pager with a summary of PFAS regulations
- Background and Business Case
- Formulation Assessment/What to ask your chemical suppliers
- Supplier engagement
- Testing
- Regulatory timeline with key dates for compliance
- Regulatory tracker with detailed information all enacted PFAS laws by state
- Weekly group office hours with technical advisor, Michelle Legatt
- Monthly group office hours with legislative advisor, James Pollack
- Monthly CCMC Working Group meetings
- Monthly Sustainability Policy Strategy Working Group meetings
- Online Member Community to share questions and best practices with other outdoor companies
- Quarterly webinars
- Coming Soon: CCMC Guidebook for PFAS Phase-Out
Webinar: Giving your Outdoor Company a Competitive Edge By Using IP Protection Strategies
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Live Date: May 17, 2023 at 1 pm MT
Innovation is key to growth, especially for companies in the outdoor industry where upgrades and improvements are vital to survival in today’s market. Once you have harnessed that innovation, the next critical step is making sure to protect your work and your brand from all angles. Intellectual property strategies can give your company a competitive edge, but it’s important to understand which one is right for your unique business and products. Maschoff Brennan Shareholder Paul Johnson will discuss:
- Utility patents
- Trademarks
- Design patents
- Trade Secrets
Webinar: Trailblazing Through Data: Privacy and Cybersecurity in the Outdoor Industries
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Live Date: May 3, 2023 at 1 pm MT
With an ever-changing legal landscape, data can be a land of opportunity or a serious liability. In this webinar, Ballard Spahr’s privacy attorneys provide an overview of the state of the law, highlight regulatory and litigation trends, examine vulnerabilities relating to common cookies and analytical tools, and discuss the mechanics and legal implications of data connectivity and digital marketplaces that are growing in popularity.
Speakers:
Greg Szewczyk is a partner in Ballard Spahr’s Denver and Boulder offices and a Practice Co-Leader of the Privacy and Data Security Group. Greg leverages over a decade of experience in high stakes litigation to help companies assess risk and comply with the ever expanding patchwork of state, federal, and international privacy and data security statutes and regulations.
Kelsey Fayer is an associate in Ballard Spahr’s Litigation Department, focusing her practice in the Privacy and Data Security Group. Kelsey assists clients in complying with various privacy and data security laws, including the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK[1]GDPR), the Telephone Consumer Privacy Act (TCPA), the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the China Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), the Canada Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), the Canada Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and Mexico’s Federal Law on the Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties.
Webinar: Achieving your 2023 ESG goals: measure and manage your sustainability impact
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Date: January 19, 2023 at 1 pm MT
Are you preparing for your 2023 ESG goals, but unsure where to start? Join this OIA-sponsored session to learn how you can work towards your ESG goals using the Higg sustainability insights platform. In this educational webinar open to all OIA members, Higg will provide an overview and demonstration of the key tools and platform features to help you get started measuring and managing supply chain sustainability. Learn how you can make the most of your sustainability data through supplier engagement, primary data collection, and analytics. Higg is proud to support OIA members in their sustainability journeys with OIA-only discounts and benefits designed to drive uniform measurement and progress in the outdoor industry. Takeaways (why should you participate?): The session is ideal for OIA members who are new to Higg and looking for sustainability solutions to help meet their ESG goals, as well as for current Higg users who want to get more out of Higg’s management tools and maximize primary data when using the platform. You’ll leave this session with clear next steps to measure and manage your value chain impacts.
About Higg
Higg is the sustainability insights platform for consumer goods business—delivering software and services for measuring, managing, and sharing supply chain performance data.
From materials to products, from facilities to stores, from emission to working conditions, Higg unlocks a complete view of a business’s social and environmental impact.
Launched in 2019 as a public-benefit corporation, Higg is trusted by brands, retailers, and manufacturers to provide the single source of environmental, sustainability, and governance intelligence they need to accelerate progress. Learn more at www.higg.com.
Webinar: Sustainable Packaging Solutions for the Outdoor Industry
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Live Date: Thursday, November 17, 2022, 12 – 1 pm MT
About A New Earth Project
Consumers are more aware of packaging waste than ever before, and sustainable packaging is seen not only as a reflection of your company’s commitment to the environment but also as a key brand attribute. If you’re confused by sustainable packaging vernacular or how to begin, you’re not alone. Join sustainable packaging experts Wes Carter and Caroline James for an informative webinar with other members of OIA to learn how to meet this demand while developing a plan that’s based on your unique business and sustainability goals. During the webinar, we’ll touch on the following:
- What you need to know about the plastic waste crisis
- How to begin your company’s sustainable packaging journey
- Balancing priorities: minimizing carbon footprint while reducing waste
- Recyclable vs. Compostable: when to choose which type of packaging
- The role of fiber-based packaging
- Brook Hopper – Head of Business Development, Outdoor – A New Earth Project
- Wes Carter – Founder, A New Earth Project, President of Atlantic Packaging
- Caroline James – Director of Sustainability, A New Earth Project and Atlantic Packaging
About A New Earth Project
An initiative of Atlantic Packaging, A New Earth Project is a coalition of outdoor enthusiasts, industry-leading brands, and innovative, environmentally conscious packaging suppliers to find and scale sustainable packaging solutions to stop plastic pollution from ending up in the world’s oceans, lakes, and rivers. As a catalyst to build awareness, increase education and inspire action, A New Earth Project brings together the voices of ocean and water advocacy and the global supply chain to solve these problems while providing sustainable packaging solutions for brands of all sizes. It’s about all of us, it has to be.
Webinar: Building Fair Chance Hiring Into Your Hiring and DEI Strategies
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Live date: Monday, December 5, 2022, 1 pm MT
Presenters:
Harris Rollinger, Co-Founder & Director, Fair Chance Hiring
Melissa Dickerson, Chief of Staff, Honest Jobs, Inc.
Tameka Montgomery, CEO, Core Strategy Partners
Join the Colorado Fair Chance Hiring Initiative and fair chance hiring experts from across the country to learn about the concept of fair chance hiring, why it matters, and the steps your company can take to implement these practices.
An estimated 70 million people in the United States—nearly one in three adults—have a prior arrest or conviction record. And that criminal record can follow a person for decades, long after they’ve served their time and paid their debt to society. Fair chance hiring is built on the premise that everyone, regardless of their background, has the right to be fairly assessed for a role they are qualified for. Companies that practice fair chance hiring are able to tap into a larger pool of qualified, diverse talent with a wide range of experiences, better understand their customers, and ultimately, reach stronger business outcomes.
Evaluating your own hiring practices for fairness is critical and building out your own fair chance hiring plan can open new and valuable talent pools as well as improve workplace culture to ensure qualified candidates are not being passed up.