Designing for Durability, Longevity, and Repair

We build products to last, offering outdoor enthusiasts more adventures and reducing the amount of goods piling up in landfills.

Product Durability

Our priority is to design and manufacture durable, long-lasting products. Extensive testing—both in-house and in the field—allows us to ensure that our products will stand up to the wear and tear to which our customers subject their gear. Our products have stood the test of time, and we often hear stories from customers who are still using their MSR stoves from the 1980s or their Therm-a-Rest mattresses from the 1970s. Because we believe that our outdoor gear should support you on adventures for years to come, we offer a limited lifetime warranty on all our non-electronic products.

Product Care and Repair

Most of our products are repairable by customers or service staff at our Repair Shop. This helps keep your gear in the field and out of landfills. Furthermore, our repair team shares knowledge with customers to empower them to repair their own gear in the field using one of our repair kits included with many of our mattresses or service kits made available to them.

Our repair and service team has more than 50 years of combined experience and has been featured in Outside Magazine for their work. With their creativity and technical expertise, most of the products that get serviced and repaired are returned to customers for many more years of use. As of December 17th, 2021, our Repair shop serviced and repaired almost 60% of all items they received across all five of our brands. These repairs are tracked and feedback from our repair shop is passed on to our product team to ensure we make intelligent design decisions moving forward. This feedback informs our product durability criteria as we rigorously test products in the field and the lab.

End of Use and Recycling

Many of our products are made from durable materials (many of which are recyclable), and many of our decades-old products are still in use, but we still consider and focus on what happens at the end of a product's life. We are working hard to build our products and packaging with recyclable and upcycled materials with plans to add more year over year. Going forward, we plan to find recyclers for scrap nylon, polyester and foam, and develop a strategy for end-of-life waste. In addition, we will develop a preferred materials policy for nylon and polyester that is easily recycled.

Product Materials & Chemicals Selection

Choosing sustainable materials is essential for the good stewardship of the outdoors and to create a worthy legacy for future generations. We have an established restricted substance list to ensure we are complying with material regulations and our corporate environmental goals. With these attributes in mind, we seek the best options for our new products and constantly look to improve the textiles used in our existing products.

Materials

There are a multitude of products across our brands that are already recyclable, use environmentally preferred materials or limit chemicals and toxic substances. We’re committed to increasing the number of products made with durable, sustainable materials.

MSR water storage systems are free of BPA, BPS and phthalates, additives commonly found in plastics that have been linked to negative health effects.

Our stoves, tents, water treatment devices, cookware and snowshoes feature components that can easily be recycled.

We also partner with material certification agencies and initiatives like the Responsible Down Standard and suppliers like Nikwax to find better and more sustainable material sourcing for our sleeping bags.

Chemicals

We know that customers have concerns around flame retardants (FRs) in products. That is why we actively participate in the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) Chemical Management Working Group (CMWG). Our team participates in the Flame Retardant Task Force, which focuses on disseminating knowledge to other OIA members as well as to regulatory agencies and the public.

Our goals are to develop a chemical management database and strategy, and to have 100% of soft goods products compliant with BLUESIGN® standards by 2030. We are also working towards having 100% of the DWR (Durable Water Repellent) used in soft good products to be non-PFC by 2030.

Restricted Substance Lists

Developed in alignment with BLUESIGN® and OEKO-TEX, the Restricted Substance Lists (RSL) help us protect our customers, employees, and the environment from hundreds of harmful substances. We require our suppliers to comply with our restricted chemicals list and audit to ensure compliance. The following Restricted Substance Lists are constantly evolving as we engage with new toxicology research and regulations.

Supply Chain, Transportation and Manufacturing

Building the majority of what we make in-house and using local suppliers allows us greater control over product quality and the environmental impacts of our manufacturing processes. We also are working to closely monitor all our supply partners and facilities to maximize efficiency and minimize our global footprint. To ensure that we don’t create unnecessary waste, we are working to carefully observe and optimize the way we move goods around the world. We track and monitor all air freight and use consolidation programs to ensure we only transport fully loaded containers.

Supplier Tracking

Responsible manufacturing extends far beyond what happens at our Seattle, Reno and Ireland factories, and includes not only our own practices but the practices of our materials suppliers. We believe that the key to responsible manufacturing includes the social, economic and environmental impacts of our suppliers, and expect that our suppliers share our commitment to sustainability. To ensure that our supplier values are aligned with our own, we have created a Supplier Code of Conduct outlining basic expectations of our business partners. Many of our suppliers go above and beyond these basic expectations.

Sustainable Manufacturing

We hold our own production facilities in Seattle, WA, Reno, NV, and Cork, Ireland, to strict standards for water and waste management and disposal resulting from our manufacturing processes.

In Seattle, these standards include:

• US DOT: 49 CFR 107-180 (Hazardous Materials Regulations)
• US EPA: 40 CFR 262 (Small Quantity Hazardous Waste Generator)
• US EPA 33 USC 1251 (Clean Water Act)
• Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS)
• WAC 296-901 & 29 CFR 1910.1200
• WA Department of Ecology: WAC 173-303 (Dangerous Waste Regulations)
• King County Title 28.84.060 (Wastewater)
• King County Surface Water Design Manual (Stormwater)
• City of Seattle SMC 22.800-22.808 (Stormwater)
• City of Seattle SMC 25.09 (Environmentally Critical Areas)
• US EPA 7 USC 136 (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act)

Carbon Footprint Action Plan

Cascade Designs, Inc. is committed to progressing towards climate neutrality. Like our favorite outdoor adventures, this requires knowledge, planning, and great partners.

Knowledge

Cascade Designs estimates its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using Change Climate Project’s BEE (Brand Emissions Estimate) tool. This tool follows the conventions of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and uses data from trusted sources to estimate our climate impacts based on the value of the products we produce.

In 2023 our estimated Greenhouse Gas Emissions were 40,203 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tC02e).

• 1,413 tC02e were “direct” emissions created from activities such as burning fuel in company vehicles (referred to as Scope 1 emissions).
• 762 tC02e were “indirect” emissions from the generation of energy we purchased for our offices, warehouses, and to operate our own manufacturing facilities (Scope 2 emissions).
• 38,068 tC02e were all other indirect emissions and comprise the greatest share of our carbon footprint. These are the emissions associated with making and transporting the raw materials and products we purchase, the equipment and tools we manufacture with, shipping products to our customers, business travel, employee commuting, and more (Scope 3 emissions).

Planning

We use our carbon footprint estimates to identify and target parts of our business that have the greatest effectiveness in reducing our climate impacts.

We have set GHG reduction targets aligned with the standards of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). Science-aligned targets are consistent with the level of decarbonization required to prevent the worst effects of climate change by keeping global temperature increase below 2°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures.

Our goal is to achieve a 45% GHG emission reduction compared to our 2021 baseline by 2030 and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Partnership

We have environmental impact checks in our product development process and pursue lower-carbon materials and processes in our own facilities and with our supply chain partners. We also pursue energy efficiency and promote renewable energy throughout our supply chain.

We are active members of the Outdoor Industry Association’s Climate Action Corps, networking with and learning from other outdoor industry companies as we work together to protect our shared spaces.

California Proposition 65 FAQ

What Is California Proposition 65?

Passed into law by California’s voters in 1986, Prop 65 is the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, intended to help California residents make informed decisions about the products they buy. The act was created to inform people about possible exposure to chemicals known by the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects and/or other reproductive harm.

Why have we placed a Proposition 65 label on some products?

Any company with ten or more employees operating or selling products within the State of California must comply with the requirements of Proposition 65. To comply, businesses are: (1) prohibited from knowingly discharging listed chemicals into sources of drinking water; and (2) required to provide a "clear and reasonable" warning before knowingly and intentionally exposing anyone to a listed chemical.

A Proposition 65 warning means that the business has evaluated the exposure and has concluded that it exceeds the "no significant risk level,” OR that the business is providing a warning based on the presence of a “listed” chemical without actually evaluating the exposure.

Cascade Designs, Inc. is providing a warning based on our knowledge about the presence of one or more listed chemicals without attempting to evaluate the level of exposure. When using one of our products, the exposure to a listed chemical may be well within the “no significant risk” range, but out of caution we have placed the Proposition 65 warning labels on our products.

Are consumers using a product with a Proposition 65 warning at risk?

The California government states: “The fact that a product bears a Proposition 65 warning does not mean by itself that the product is unsafe.” The government also explains, “You could think of Proposition 65 more as a ‘right to know’ law than a pure product safety law.”

A Proposition 65 warning means that the product contains one or more listed chemicals. By law, a warning is required unless the business proves that the exposure to the chemical poses "no significant risk." The "no significant risk" level for carcinogens is defined as the level which is calculated to result in not more than one excess case of cancer in 100,000 individuals exposed over a 70-year lifetime. Therefore, if you are exposed to the chemical in question at this level every day for 70 years, theoretically, it will increase your chances of getting cancer by no more than 1 case in 100,000 individuals so exposed.

The "no significant risk" level for reproductive toxicants is defined as the level of exposure which, even if multiplied by 1,000, will not produce birth defects or other reproductive harm. Therefore, the level of exposure is below the "no observable effect level," divided by 1,000. (The "no observable effect level" is the highest dose level which has not been associated with observable reproductive harm in humans or test animals.)

For example, some MSR stoves contain brass. Exposure to brass is not itself harmful. However, lead is a component of brass and should the brass be disrupted, a user could potentially come in contact with the lead. While the lead levels fall below the “no significant risk” range, we are still required to acknowledge its presence.

For further information about California’s Proposition 65, please visit http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/background/p65plain.html

What types of chemicals are on the Proposition 65 list?

Proposition 65 requires that the Governor of California maintain and publish a list of harmful chemicals, and update it annually. The list contains a wide range of naturally occurring and synthetic chemicals that are known to California to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm. They may be additives or ingredients in pesticides, common household products, food, drugs, dyes or solvents. They may be used in manufacturing and construction, or be the byproducts of chemical processes.

According to the state of California:

A chemical is listed if it has been classified as a reproductive toxicant or carcinogen by an "authoritative" organization on the subject. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer are considered authoritative for carcinogens. For reproductive toxicants, appropriate authorities include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and International Agency for Research on Cancer. Chemicals will also be listed if they are required to be labeled or identified as a carcinogen or as a reproductive toxicant by an agency of the state or federal government.