Earth Day - The Small Things Add Up

Earth Day: The Small Things Add Up

We love the planet we get to explore.
And we want to do our part to take care of it.

Earth Day feels like a good moment to pause and ask a simple question:
What’s one thing we could do just a little bit better?

You’ve probably heard of the idea of a 1% change.
It’s small. Almost unnoticeable in the moment.
But done consistently, it adds up—and over time, it can completely change the trajectory.

That’s how we think about this.

Here’s what that looks like for us.

The impact you don’t always see

When people think about waste, they think about trash on the trail.

But a lot of it starts before you ever head outside.

Packaging.
Plastic wraps.
Clamshells you fight to open… then toss five minutes later.

It’s easy to forget about it. But it adds up.

What to look for (next time you buy gear)

You don’t need to overhaul everything you own.

Just start paying attention:

❓ Is there a lot of packaging?
❓ Is it plastic… or something better?
❓ Will this gear last me years, or just this season?
❓ Can it do more than one job?

That’s it. Small questions. Better decisions.

What we’re doing at Outdoor Element

We’re not perfect. But we are intentional.

We’re cutting out plastic
Where we can, we’ve removed single-use plastics from our packaging. We design our products with packaging that uses recycled materials and is also recyclable.

We’ve made changes you won’t see
This one matters to us.

We worked with our manufacturers to remove plastic from the internal packaging, too—and replaced it with paper inserts.

As a customer, you'll never see this change. It's completely behind the scenes, and it mattered to us.

Removing those internal plastic bags may not seem like a big thing.

But across thousands of units? It adds up.

That’s the kind of 1% change that matters.

We build gear that sticks around
The longer something lasts, the less it ends up in the landfill.

So we focus on:

🍃 Durable materials
🍃 Replaceable parts
🍃 Tools that do more than one thing

Fewer pieces of gear. More use out of each one.

Why we care about the little things

We’re a small brand.

We’re not going to solve this overnight.

But we do believe this: small changes, made consistently, matter.

A paper insert instead of plastic.
A product you don’t have to replace next year.
A customer who chooses a little more intentionally.

On their own, the changes are easy to overlook.

Together, they start to make a difference.

This Earth Day

No big ask here.

Just… pay attention.

Use what you have.
Choose what lasts.
Support brands that are trying.

Because the goal isn’t just to get outside more.

It’s to keep these places worth going back to.

Explore with Confidence. Leave Less Behind.