Patagonia has a new, refreshingly honest feature on their site. It details the supply chain for several of their products. It maps the progression of the products from raw material to finished good. What makes me say "refreshingly honest" is that it's not just a highlight of what they do well. The do point out for example that the Synchilla vest, though it's made from recycled materials, travels a great distance throughout North America and much of that by truck. They even offer a total amount of carbon emitted to get the product from origin to distribution. Seeing how much traveling a product does should emphasize to everyone to buy locally produced products*, especially if reducing your own carbon footprint is a major emphasis.
* Note that I try to purchase as locally as possible for the Green Business Networking events. I'll take recommendations for good regional wine, since what I've been getting comes from California (even though it's essentially the store brand from Earth Fare.)
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I've been thinking more and more about how every single thing that I buy has probably traveled a great distance to get to me. Even groceries has usually traveled far. I think that it's easy to take for granted how readily available things are but at what true cost? I was really disappointed when I went to the farmer's market this weekend and after picking out 2 plums, I got home and they had a tiny sticker that read: Chile. I didn't even think of checking. So I will need to do more searching to find out what is local (native)grown around here as well as other goods and services. Our local economy needs the boost as well.
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