As an outdoor company founded on a love for nature, high quality, and long-lasting products, environmental responsibility has been in Norrøna’s DNA from the beginning. Norrøna believes the only way to run a company is through a sustainable platform, and it is transparent in its efforts and progression through the public roadmap.

Norrøna constructs approximately 90% of its product development in-house, having always invested in machinery both to construct the products and to test the materials. Products go through 15 quality checkpoints in order to ensure both the materials and construction will meet or exceed the customer’s expectations for quality and performance. If anything should go wrong, Norrøna has been continuously repairing products for over 90 years. 

Norrøna designs are developed to be timeless, allowing for use to go beyond one generation. Continuing a legacy of quality, function, and design allows the creation of products that are appreciated and desired over many years. The longer a product is in use, the more environmentally positive that the product becomes.

“[Our] 2029 Road Map is based on improving the biodiversity of the planet through eliminating net carbon emissions, keeping water and air clean, enriching soil, protecting forests and grasslands, and ensuring the rights and safety of all workers affected within the supply chain of Norrøna products,” says Brad Boren, Director of innovation and sustainability at Norrøna. Indeed, by planning with a lengthy (though fast-approaching) runway, Norrøna is making it feasible to achieve goals both smaller and larger in scale.

All in all, the many sustainable initiatives undertaken by Norrøna points to big ambition for the Norwegian company. The point is not, however, to merely be ambitious, but to create lasting and transformative change to the way apparel is manufactured, upcycled and repaired.