It wasn’t easy, but one of the most environmentally-minded companies on the planet figured out how to outdo itself. The Patagonia Nano Puff jacket is a garment renowned the world over as an essential piece for climbers, snowboarders, fly fisherman, and anyone that leads an active lifestyle. Now the piece features a new material from Patagonia’s partner, Primaloft, who was challenged to improve the insulation and reduce its environmental impact without compromising performance. And they succeeded. Below are the details on how Patagonia is keeping two million plastic bottles from the landfill within the product’s first year of production.
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Official release from Patagonia:
Patagonia’s Nano Puff styles now have a lighter environmental impact and the same pinnacle performance benefits that have made the Nano Puff a go-to-piece for every outdoor activity. While it’s not easy to lighten the environmental impact of a technical piece like the Nano Puff without sacrificing performance, Patagonia challenged its partners at PrimaLoft to help. The result – PrimaLoft® Gold Insulation Eco – is eco-friendly, premium synthetic insulation made with 55% recycled content. With zero loss in performance, Gold Eco is still just as lightweight, compressible and warm even when wet. After years of iterating by PrimaLoft, Patagonia was so impressed with the new insulation it is using it in all men’s and women’s Nano Puff styles starting this fall.
By using Gold Eco in the Nano Puff styles, Patagonia will save two million plastic bottles from the landfill in the first year alone. With the goal of making the biggest environmental impact possible, beginning in 2017 PrimaLoft will replace all of its Gold Insulation, anywhere it’s used, with the new 55% recycled Gold Eco.
“PrimaLoft’s significant commitment to use Gold Eco across the board starting next year goes well beyond Patagonia’s initial challenge and the impact will be seen in the outdoor community as well as any industry that currently uses the Gold Insulation,” stated Jenna Johnson, Senior Director of Global Technical Outdoor. “The new Nano Puff exemplifies the three pillars of our mission – to build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, and equally as important, to use business to help solve the environmental crisis. When businesses join forces and work together, the benefits to the environment are compounded and everyone wins.
Patagonia has been using recycled materials in its products since 1993 when the company began turning plastic bottles into fleece. Recycled materials have been incorporated into the Nano Puff jacket since it first launched in 2009 with shell and liner fabrics woven from 100% recycled polyester. Since 2014, the woven Patagonia labels that appear on all Nano Puff garments have been made with 85 percent recycled polyester content. And this season, all Nano Puff zippers will be made from over fifty percent recycled polyester. While the fabrics and materials have evolved over the years for quality and performance, Patagonia’s commitment to non-virgin sources hasn’t changed and the company has challenged its designers and partners to continue making these important improvements.
“PrimaLoft is excited to deliver on Patagonia’s request to build upon our sustainable product line and create a more eco-friendly version of our highest performing insulation,” said Mike Joyce, president and CEO of PrimaLoft, Inc. “Sustaining an ethical and environmentally sound business has always been one of the core values for us at PrimaLoft. Partnering with Patagonia, an industry leader in sustainable practices, to introduce Gold Eco is a natural fit. With this latest innovation, we believe we’ve found that elusive balance of using recycled content while maintaining the high level of performance consumers expect from both PrimaLoft and Patagonia.”
Patagonia’s Nano Puffstyles have earned essential-to-the-kit status by being warm, lightweight, compressible and weather-resistant—and by working as either a midlayer or outerwear. The updated Nano Puff styles, which all use 60-g PrimaLoft Gold Insulation Eco and feature the same iconic brick quilting, maintain the technical performance attributes while adding in the benefit of being eco-friendly.
