I've been pleasantly surprised by sportswear companies in the past few years. They are among the leading edge of companies that seem to understand that climate change and environmental devastation are really, really bad for their business. It makes sense, of course--who wants to buy outdoor clothing if the outdoors no longer exists?

Leading the pack for a long time has been Patagonia, who recently launched the "Footprint Chronicles" to let customers track the carbon footprint of individual pieces of Patagonia clothing. As far as I know, Patagonia is the first retailer to examine the impacts of manufacturing and shipping at this granular level. (I know, because I have a long, bad habit of asking retailers I shop with why they don't do more to reduces the impacts of  shipping halfway across the globe).

Other sportswear companies, are not far behind. Particularly, Portland's own Nau is demonstrating great transparency and honesty as they attempt to ameliorate their impact. Simple Shoes, Nike and Icebreaker have also made good strides.

The unfortunate news is that sustainability appears to cost much more than unsustainable goods. Sometime in the near future, that will probably be different, as governments grapple with imposing carbon taxes. I think the companies I've named--and others that are on a path towards sustainability--will definitely have a leg up when that time comes.