DESIGNS ON THE FUTURE

Last year, we collaborated with Nottingham Trent University. We were chuffed to be asked to team up with them. They reached out to us because they know we share the same values. We want to design great products. We’re both obsessed with the details and passionate about doing less harm.

We worked together to teach sustainable design to the designers of the future. And for the final project, we asked the cohort to redesign our bestselling tent, the Soloist. We wanted to reduce our impact, but still outperform.

Simple means sustainable

First, we granted the students access to all areas of Alpkit. We toured them round our head office and our Hathersage store.

It’s easy to design kit that seems sustainable. But if it’s hard to manufacture, that supersizes the carbon footprint. That’s why we took the NTU students to our UK factory, where they learned how to sew a Bandicoot pouch out of scrap fabrics.

“We saw Alpkit demonstrating product development within a company that lives and breathes its brand values.” –

Karen Winfield BA (Hons) MIED, Senior Lecturer in Product Design at

NTU.

Elly’s Story

Elly Cundill, Customer Services Manager

I joined Alpkit in 2017, fresh out of travelling after university, with no real idea what I wanted to do with my career. I knew I wanted to help people, and that I would only work for a company with strong values. Alpkit Customer Support offered me a way to do both!

I’m lucky to have grown alongside Alpkit, firstly as a Team Leader for our Aftersales area, then secondly as Assistant Manager for Customer Support. My passion for people development really grew in this role and I helped guide our customer journey, transform our returns processes, and work more closely with our senior leadership team.

Thirdly, Alpkit supported me in a move to our People Team, where I could build on my passion to develop people. Here, I developed a real affinity for training, and took on responsibility for this in the company, as well as joining the Alpkit Foundation board and leading the Continuum Project. It’s been incredibly rewarding removing barriers between people and the adventures they want to go on.

The brief

We asked the students to do a deep dive into our products and to reduce their carbon footprint. We gave them each a Qark headtorch and a Soloist tent. They did full product tear downs and a Life Cycle Analysis for each product, verifying our carbon footprint.

21 groups presented us their pre-LCAs and post-LCAs, which included their suggested design changes. Some suggestions were as simple as material changes or reductions. But some students went and above beyond. One group redesigned the entire tent! But small changes add up to make a big impact. With the selected design changes, we’ll see an expected carbon emission reduction of 5.55 kg (c.31% decrease). We’re currently working on implementing these changes into our range. This will reduce our annual carbon emissions by 16849.8kg in just Soloist tents alone! Working with academics keeps us ahead of the industry. Helps us take our sustainability principles from great to greater. That’s why we can’t wait to work with NTU next year too.

“I was impressed with the depth of interrogation Alpkit had already undertaken in their sustainability principles and actions, prior to the student project… The resulting student work was lifted to a higher level, because of the level Alpkit are already at.” - Michelle Johansson BA BArch(Hons) Architect (NZ) LFA Sustainability Consultant, ADBE Sustainability in Enterprise (SiE) Project.

The Continuum project was formed to tackle two things: to reduce the amount of usable kit going into landfill; and to get that usable kit into the hands of those who need it most. We accept all sorts of kit like tents, waterproofs, down sleeping bags, and wetsuits.

Neoprene doesn’t degrade and we’re particularly passionate about keeping it in use. We send wetsuits to charities who skilfully turn the neoprene into bags, coasters, or mug cosies. Continuum send clothing and sleeping kit to local homeless charities or to ShelterSuit, who make waterproof items for homeless people by sewing tent fabric and insulated sleeping bags together.

It’s a pleasure to work with such a wide array of fantastic charities, and to see the impact our donations make. I spend a few hours a month liaising with our charities and organising kit sort outs. Our staff team volunteer sorting through donations, and we send them out to our charity partners once a month.

After a short secondment to Customer Support in 2022, I was made Customer Service Manager, joining the Senior Leadership team, Training Group, and Sustainability board. This was a big step and I’m really excited about the increased responsibility.

Beth Pearce, Alpkit HR Manager: “We have a truly incredible bunch of people who keep giving their all for our amazing business. It is our staff who are our brand ambassadors and bring the energy and uniqueness of our products to life. So as we enter this next year we will continue to support the development and well-being of our team; who will always be the greatest asset Alpkit has.”