Sustainability Platform

Civilized gear
for humans, for life.

humangear makes stuff. It’s pretty simple stuff – containers for goops and gear, utensils for eating, accessories to help people on the move.  But over time it’s become obvious to us that making even simple stuff gets complicated. Making stuff creates pollution. Making stuff puts carbon in the atmosphere. Making stuff can mess up this planet. As a company that makes stuff, we have a responsibility to think about what we make and why.

So here’s what we’re making and why.

Make it amazing

If you’re going to make something, make it great. Really great. Ridiculously great. We obsess over the stuff we make. Heck, we spent two years figuring out how to make a better fork and spoon. If that’s not obsessive, we don’t know what is. As designers, we believe that a product needs to look beautiful and work beautifully for people to appreciate it. And when someone appreciates a product, they’re more likely to hold onto it (sometimes literally) and hopefully use it, well, forever.

Make it last

If you’re going to make something, make it last a long time. Like, a lifetime. We back everything we make – yes, even our $3 Uno utensil – with a no bullshit lifetime warranty. If someone writes to us with a problem, they will hear back from a real human (usually within 24 hours, followed by a hand-written note) to make it right. After all, the single best thing consumers can do for the planet is to use stuff as long as possible. Yes, making a great utensil costs energy and generates carbon, but a great utensil that someone can use for a lifetime has the potential to eliminate thousands of cheap, disposable utensils (and all the associated energy and carbon). We design stuff to last a very long time to help people live more reuseable – as opposed to disposable – lifestyles.

Maximize the benefit,
minimize the harm

We take sustainability literally – we want to keep making stuff for generations to come, which means we need a laser focus on the impacts that manufacturing and distribution can have on the environment. A big part of that comes down to greenhouse gas emissions, so with that in mind, we continually think about ways to reduce our carbon footprint (like minimizing packaging and making it recyclable, shipping more things by sea instead of air, having energy-efficient work spaces, etc.). It’s important to us that we don’t just look at our products impact on the environment, but our facilities and our direct interactions as well — this is a reason we are continually setting emission reduction goals.

Calculating our Footprint

In addition to setting emission reduction goals, in 2021, we began calculating our carbon footprint. We are currently using the Normative Business Carbon Calculator to calculate our annual carbon footprint that abides by the internationally recognized greenhouse gas accounting standards (GHG Protocol).

In addition, to identifying our carbon footprint, we have completely offset our scope 1 and 2 emissions, and partially offset our scope 3 emissions for 2021, 2022, 2023, and are committed to doing this going forward.

Offsetting our Emissions

When deciding how to offset our emissions, we look to projects that have been certified by a registry (American Carbon Registry, Climate Action Reserve, Verified Carbon Standards, among others) or have provided documentation to ensure they are on the path to certification.

For example, the project we chose to offset our 2021 emissions was through IdleAir. IdleAir provides comprehensive idle reduction services to the long-haul trucking industry at over 20 Advanced Truck Stop Electrification (ATE) locations across the U.S. ATE is an idling reduction solution that allows a driver to completely shut down the main propulsion engine of their diesel truck, eliminating all of the air pollution associated with diesel engine idling.

As our products are often transferred from our warehouse to distribution centers through long-haul trucking and we also have a satellite office in Oregon, offsetting through IdleAir and creating ATE locations seemed an ideal way for us to directly engage with reducing our footprint in the ways that we are contributing to carbon production.

In 2023, we purchased offsets through the Patch dashboard, specifically we funded a Wind Farm project in China that generates renewable electricity from wind and supplies it to the Northwest China Power Grid.

At the end of the day, our ultimate goal is simply: make products that help fight climate change. We’re a pretty small company, so our impact in the grand scheme of things is a drop in the rising ocean. But it’s our drop and it’s something.

Circular, not linear

While our products are made of extremely durable materials, we also recognize that even ridiculously good products can die. Many of our products are recyclable and we encourage our customers to recycle where they can. We have also begun what we call the “AfterLife” program. With AfterLife, we invite our customers to send worn out items back to us and we commit to collecting those and forwarding them onto specialty recyclers or repurposing businesses that can use the old materials for new products. It’s a small planet and we think there is no “away” to throw to. Thinking in circles instead of lines is part of changing that mindset.

Think globally;
act humangearily

We believe that change starts within the culture of our company. We’ve toured the facilities of Recology (San Francisco’s standard-setting recycling and waste management provider) multiple times to get a first-hand look at the enormity of the problem created by excess waste. This way, we can ensure that everything we’re doing in our office and with our product packaging conforms to the latest standards in recyclability, including collecting batteries, electronics, plastic bags, and other films for special recycling. We encourage our employees to take public transportation by covering the cost of their commute. We’ve volunteered at Bay Area non-profits – planting trees, cleaning up our parks, getting food to people and making meals for those in need. We’ve also donated Kiva, a micro-lending organization where our funds can be lent and re-lent to new, helpful projects again and again. In short, we’re trying to be kind humans – kind to the planet and kind to other humans.

This sustainability platform will no doubt evolve over time. There’s certainly more we can do, but we think this is a good start. We’re looking forward to building on this platform in the future.

Go humans, go.

Photo from Pack Hacker