BolderPath Inc. Sustainability Intelligence in Product Design & Manufacture
BolderPath Inc. SYSTEMS ADVANCING SUSTAINABILITY, Page 1
BolderPath’s Value Stream Ecosystem The Model for Waste-to-Product Solutions Sustainable Product Creation BolderPath is perfecting the art and science of manufacturing soft goods in the most sustainable way. This means maximizing reclaimed and recycled content, localizing processing and production activity, creating skilled jobs in the U.S. and ensuring our products are uniquely valuable, have a long life and are economically profitable. Our core business is serving select B2B partners in repurposing usable waste stream resources and building brand equity through premium, low footprint product solutions.
Defy the Ordinary. Not all products are created equal. Our products are manufactured in a LEED Gold facility. Quality at BolderPath is an output of a system that balances sustainability in all areas of product creation: material selection, life cycle analysis, innovative designs for durability, performance and branding capabilities. DiversionWorks is our supply chain commitment to the enormous footprint savings gained from reclaiming ‘textileable wastes’ as raw feedstocks. A second life product is only a sustainable solution if the product ecosystem is balanced, scalable, replicable and profitable for everyone involved. Solutions deliver real value to society, the planet and our clients; never rest on novelty.
Operational Benefits Our commitment to sustainability is in our DNA and every employee at BolderPath brings talent and perspective to our cause. Products are manufactured within 15 miles of our design studio in Boulder, CO. Our employees and contracted service providers receive livable wages and we frequently employ workers from underserved populations in our community. We’ve created a lean system to reduce unnecessary flows of material, transportation and production impacts. We measure everything, so you don’t have to.
Sustainability Intelligence We’ve created our own software to operate BolderPath and to prove how we create the most sustainable solutions possible for our clients. Our Bill of Green and EcoAnalyzer software delivers the most transparent line of promotional products available today. They’re cutting-edge tools that provide an engineering and science-based platform for ecological footprint and costing analysis. Bill of Green is an advanced manufacturing module that acts as a design and production planner and effectively calculates the real-time costs of every complex activity needed to produce our goods. It guides our efficiency and profitability. EcoAnalyzer is our ecological footprint calculator whereby your products are delivered with complete component transparency along with the best available accounting methodology for water, energy, and fuel consumption and the generation of solid waste and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
BolderPath Inc. SYSTEMS ADVANCING SUSTAINABILITY, Page 2
BolderPath Product Life Cycle Mapping Cradle-to-Cradle with a Twist
LIFE CYCLE STAGES: EXTRACTION - COMPONENTS - MATERIALS - PROCESSING - MANUFACTURING - DISTRIBUTION USEFUL LIFE - END OF LIFE (REUSE, RECYCLE, LANDFILL, INCINERATE) Raw materials come from many sources and obtaining each one involves a different system of inputs, outputs and processes, each of which has impacts on the environment. To calculate the ecological footprint of a product it is necessary to do a life cycle analysis. It’s a mapping and prioritizing of the total impact of producing our merchandise to account for the most important inputs and outputs throughout the life cycle of each product from its birth; including design, raw material extraction, first life use, material production, part production, assembly, packaging and delivery. BolderPath doesn’t calculate the Second Useful Life or End of Life stages of a products’ life cycle. All of our products require no or minuscule footprints to be useful for many years or decades. While known parts and materials in our products are recyclable, we expect user behavior to limit the number of our products to be recycled properly and we don’t have a take back program at this time.
BolderPath Inc. SYSTEMS ADVANCING SUSTAINABILITY, Page 3
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Cradle-to-Gate What is Cradle-to-Gate? Cradle-to-Gate is a product life cycle term which refers to the footprint and costs associated with all raw materials getting to a BolderPath facility for processing or production. All of our products are built from resources that are either reclaimed, recycled or first use (virgin). Reclaimed resources are processed by BolderPath but are still in the same material form we received them (i.e. billboards and inner tubes.) Recycled resources are wastes that have to be reprocessed more intensely into something new that is usable (i.e. rPET fabrics that are made from beverage containers) and generally require more energy and resources than reclaimed ones. We purchase these. First life or virgin resources are new textile and hardware inputs that we also purchase. First life materials are colored green in our documentation because we’re proud to build products with the lowest % of virgin ingredients. Each material category requires a unique calculation to assess its footprint and cost to society.
RECL AIM ED RES OURCES
RE CYC LED RE SOU RCE S
F I R S T L IF E R E S O U RC E S
have totals that include two calculations; the portion of responsibility we accept from its first life and the impacts BolderPath generates when producing the second-life product they become.
enter EcoAnalyzer by inputting baseline data for each material we use. rPET is a prominent recycled input. We have seven custom fabrics, webbing, bindings, and zippers that are all 100% postconsumer #1 plastic. Baseline data is acquired from credible industry studies to capture the reprocessing impacts, then we add a real world scenario of first use and transportation to arrive at a realistic footprint. Plastics recycling consumes a fair amount of water, fuel and energy; and the best rPET comes from Taiwan so there is an increased transpor tation impact over our reclaimed materials. BolderPath includes 50% of the first life footprint of all recycled material inputs.
a r e m a t e r i a l s m a d e f r o m n e w ly extracted natural resources and then purchased and shipped to us in Boulder, CO. Many BolderPath products only contain from this category the nylon thread and our manufacturer’s fabric label.
To achieve this we’ve created first life baseline data for every reused material and component we handle. F rom baseline data we can offer our clients the footprint for diverted materials as a 100% producer responsibility metric that applies to them. Since BolderPath is not responsible for the first life but we do use it as a product ingredient, we include 10% of the material’s first life metric in our product and order reports.
We calculate the footprint of every first life material based on best available source data (credible baseline figures) and add their unique transportation impact to arrive at a 100% producer responsibility total.
BolderPath Inc. SYSTEMS ADVANCING SUSTAINABILITY, Page 4
Footprint Methodology Inputs, Flows, Outputs and Data Collection
Significant consideration is given to assess the most impacting and relevant measurements within the entire ecosystem of reclaiming wastes and producing second-life goods. It is not feasible to measure every dataset for every resource and activity back to an original extraction. For example, we include the footprint of acquiring and operating a sewing machine and the space it requires, but we don’t include the footprint of each part that made the sewing machine itself. Electrical and fuel metrics are extremely complex when capturing the embedded fuel, water, waste and GHG generation needed to produce and deliver a kWh of energy or a gallon of diesel. The relevant depth of a calculation is determined by systems mapping, setting priorities and proper evaluation. Formulas are created by our team of specialized engineers and run to the tenth decimal even though we report to hundredths. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) is the collection and system entry of all known inputs and flows, process data and outputs. Source data collected from verifiable 3rd parties (i.e. for the electricity profile of our energy provider, or the known footprint of making 1gm of brass) is updated cyclically according to improvements in leading databases, audited industry publications and research findings. Internally derived source data (every metric under our direct control or a scenario-based calculation) is updated in a real time system. Cradle-to-Gate calculations are the most complex to determine and maintain in our system. And while our reports can’t be 100% accurate for every detail at every depth or node, we have a scientific argument for our assumptions and OUR REPORTS ARE 100% TRANSPARENT so we can tell you what we don’t have information for. Transparency is the first crucial step in sustainability and lays the groundwork for assessing hot spots, blind spots and creatively solving high leverage opportunities for social and planetary profit. Certain known metrics are used as proxies to calculate with reasonable accuracy another similar metric that has no available baseline. Like for butyl rubber, we use standardized metrics that aggregate a sampling of known providers. Our vinyl billboard proxies represent widely used substrates and a large portion of our supply chain but may not capture the exact footprint of every client’s waste. We can manually adjust product and order footprints when more accurate data is available. At the Product level, BolderPath manually enters specific inputs, processing and transportation data to capture a client’s merchandise footprint. At the Order level, we manually enter in packaging and distribution data to report the project as a whole.
BolderPath Inc. SYSTEMS ADVANCING SUSTAINABILITY, Page 5
Footprint Methodology Data Collection throughout Life Cycle Stages
Life Cycle Stages before
2nd
Life Use
CO M P ONE NT SOU R CE S
kWh
H20
FUEL
SOLID WASTE
CO2
CH4
N2O
HFCs
PFCs
SF6
CO2E
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP
X
X
0
BP
CO M P ONE NT PR OC E S SE S
Component Sources includes cradle-to-gate, but we don’t capture the processing footprint that converts raw components (i.e. pellets & fibers) into usable materials.
MAT ER IA L FOOTP R INT
Material Footprints are calculated by taking the weight of each component it contains and factoring the transportation impacts required to receive them at BolderPath.
MAT ER IA L PR OCE SSING
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP
PR O DUC TI ON E QUI PME NT
BP
0
BP
BP
BP
BP
CO M PA NY TR ANSP ORTAT ION
BP
BP
BP
X
BP
CO M PA NY ELE CTR ICAL
BP
BP
BP
X
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP
V E HI C LES & FUEL S
BP
BP
BP 0
0
0
PR O DUC T OV ER H E AD
Materials & Processes for custom features, hardware, branding elements and other additions are included here. These are additions to our Stock Product data sets.
O R DER OV ER H EA D
Materials & Vehicles used specifically for your order are captured here. This includes hang tags, packaging, shipping and distribution.
BP = Included
BP = Included w/ exclusions
X = Limited Data
BP
0 = Very limited data
BolderPath Inc. SYSTEMS ADVANCING SUSTAINABILITY, Page 6