March 24th, 2009

By John DeFore
Green Right Now

Outdoors enthusiasts, for obvious reasons, tend to be more concerned than your average folks with the future of the planet. But the marketplace for camping and outdoor gear is crowded with high-tech products using heavily engineered materials promising maximum durability and protection from the elements.

That doesn’t mean outdoor gear can’t be Earth-friendly, though. Certainly not according to Big Agnes, a Colorado company whose mission is “to help you sleep more comfortably in the dirt.” Big Agnes makes what company spokesman John Dicuollo calls “perhaps the
only double wall tent made of recycled components from the industry,” the Salt Creek 2 (pictured). The dye-free structure may not look like your camp-neighbor’s tent, but it packs all sorts of conventional usability features — reflective guy lines, waterproof tape on the seams — that are just as consistent with green principles as the tent’s body.

[Read more →]