Thank you Guy - I was just looking at the Hilltrek offerings - thanks to Chris T's input.

Hilltrek are a premier Paramo dealer, and also make the Ventile garments as well. At around £190 there a few items to choose from. Decisions, decisions.

On the Paramo front:
In terms of conservation minded clothing, (even allowing for the trip across the south Atlantic,) I do think that a Paramo waterproof is going to take some beating. It seems a good technical garment and the ethics of the company appear ,on the face of it, to be as about as good as it could get. - I can see they have just launched a lightweight jacket called the Quito. - well 500g - which I could certainly live with.

On the Ventile front:
I could have a hand made garment, made to measure - albeit a little different looking to what might be considered 'latest vogue'. As you say still lots of miles of material movements though. but still very tempting, but perhaps heavy as you say.

Either option seems better than the usual choices I might have made. Thanks for the lead on the boots, and I am still wondering where the most ethical/ conservation minded base layers and mid layers might be found.

Still looking at base layers etc.

I have come across a company called 'woolpower'. They have a product called ullfrotte. The merino wool garments are made in Scandinavia, with wool from ethical sources in South America - Again not our own back yard but I am starting to think that it may be all but impossible to buy technical garments of this nature that are made here in the UK from natural materials, also produced in the UK.

anyway heres their site

http://www.woolpower.se/en/asp/material_1.asp

Anyone any better ideas?

Also just found an excellent discussion thread on 'outdoors magic' - by someone simply known as jon.

the url is

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/2650

Well worth a read

also by the same - an article about the oil saved by Berghaus by recycling Polatec fleece

again interesting

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/5072

Sean

Can't believe we have not mentioned GoLite yet on this thread. Golite appear to be tackling the whole issue in a really positive way.

quoted from the Golite policy on their us website:

"The GoLite Index™ is a tool we created to help us drive our products to the most sustainable versions we can make. It is a product-level scorecard that addresses every product’s key social and environmental impacts, helping us make better decisions that drive our products to the most sustainable versions we can produce while helping our customers make better purchasing decisions. We see it as a starting point and our honest effort at product-level transparency. To learn more, we encourage you to review individual product scores on their specific web pages or learn more here."

read the whole thing here

http://www.golite.co.uk/Meaning-of-Lite/Sustainability.aspx


This is almost feeling like we can have our cake and eat it - lightweight and environmentally friendly kit across a whole range of outdoor products. A company with a provenance linking directly back to Ray Jardines mantra - that same company wanting to take on the environmental challenge in a major way - this has to be in my dreams surely?

So what's the catch?

Air miles,
A proportion of the fabrics only are recycled ( Golite are not claiming otherwise )
Online purchase


Any other comments much appreciated.

The weights of Golite gear increased as they moved away from the UL market, and started to target more mainstream hikers.
If i was a cynic, i would probably imagine the Golite team sitting in a boardroom wondering what to do about their name. They couldn't very well change it to Gosortoflite.
'Golite for the planet' is a very clever bit of damage limitation / creative thinking. The 'lite' is now meant to be their environmental impact, not the weight of their gear. :)

I think you're being a bit unfair Mike. GoLite's tents, packs and sleeping bags are still much lighter than average. Some of their clothing is quite heavy admittedly but clothing has never been their strong point. And they are called GoLite not GoUltraLite!

They did produce some very light gear at the start though Chris. I was just being mischevious. :) A recent interview i read said that they had made a deliberate push towards the more mainstream market. Nothing wrong with that of course. Other folk will always fill niche openings for UL gear.
I'm just suspicious of all these companies suddenly discovering that they care for ethical production and/or the environment. Folk like Paramo and Patagonia (as you mentioned elsewhere) have been doing it for years. I'm especially suspicious of the motives of the huge international brands.

Well, they started with Ray Jardine designs, so the stuff was very light. However they dropped most of that fairly quickly. I think they've been more mainstream for the last five or six years but still on the lightweight side.

There is increasing pressure on companies to be more ethical. If they do it because they feel they have to rather than from any real commitment that's fine with me. As long as they do actually do something and not just make the right noises without any action.

http://www.mardale.com/about.html

Don't know much about these guys but all their gear is made in the UK.

i'd like to wear more bamboo in summer. i have one bamboo tshirt and i find it cool and quick-drying and non-smelly. does anybody know of a company making low-impact bamboo clothing??

Trekmates and Highlander both make bamboo base layers. I reviewed these last year and recommended them. The Trekmates was 100% bamboo, the Highlander 66%.