How Sustainable is Arc’teryx?
Average Sustainability Score
Excellent
Updated:
Sep 14, 2026Arc’teryx has long been recognized for its top-of-the-line outdoor apparel and equipment. In recent years, however, the British Columbia-based company has built a new reputation as a sustainability leader, emphasizing the idea that the greenest gear is the gear that lasts the longest. With a circular design mission centered on product longevity, repairability, and functionality, Arc’teryx looks at the full life cycle of its products, finding ways to keep gear in use and out of landfills through its ReBird repair, resale, and recycling program. Let’s take a deep dive into the brand’s efforts to answer the question: How sustainable is Arc’teryx, really?
This sustainability analysis evaluates both product- and brand-level initiatives to capture the full scope of Arc'teryx’s efforts to reduce its environmental impact. Our research draws from Arc'teryx’s published sustainability data, other reputable sources, third-party certifications (a cornerstone of our process), and correspondence with brand representatives. We have independently researched over 30 Arc'teryx products to date and counting, giving us a broad understanding of the brand’s use of low-impact materials, chemistry, and manufacturing practices.
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Arc’teryx earns an “Excellent” rating for transparency around its sustainability initiatives. Its annual impact reports consistently include clear and concrete data on efforts ranging from greenhouse gas tracking to low-impact material use and circularity programs. The company also publishes a detailed sustainability webpage, and its product pages feature easy-to-use drop-downs describing product-specific features (though labeling of recycled and Bluesign-approved materials is not always perfect). Importantly, Arc’teryx has also been highly responsive to Better Trail’s inquiries when questions arise. Overall, its transparency stands at the leading edge compared to most brands.
Virgin synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon come with a heavy emissions footprint, and in 2024, just under a fifth of Arc’teryx’s total emissions came from fabrics and trims. Replacing virgin synthetics with lower-carbon recycled versions is therefore a key component of the brand’s emissions reduction strategy. Arc’teryx has set the goal of replacing 100% of its virgin nylon and polyester with recycled fabrics by 2030. (For reference, Patagonia expects to hit the same milestone by 2025.)
So, how much progress has Arc’teryx made? In 2025, Arc’teryx used 50% recycled or low-impact nylon and 61% recycled or low-impact polyester (up from 31% and 47% in 2023, respectively). While this represents solid progress, Arc’teryx fell short of its interim goal of reaching 75% recycled polyester by 2025. However, it met its 2025 nylon goal and anticipates being on track to achieve 100% recycled or low-impact nylon and polyester by 2030.
Arc’teryx became a Bluesign System Partner in 2013, marking one of its earliest steps toward reducing environmental impact. Participation in the Bluesign System ensures textiles and products meet strict standards for chemical safety and environmental responsibility. While any brand can source Bluesign-approved fabrics, becoming a System Partner signals a stronger commitment to responsible chemistry, with onsite assessments every two to three years. Through this partnership, Arc’teryx set goals to use 50% less water, 30% less energy, and 15% fewer chemicals compared to pre-partnership levels, and it adopted Bluesign’s Restricted Substances List across its supply chain. However, Arc’teryx does not publish an overall percentage of Bluesign-approved material use, though we’ve seen the materials in most Arc’teryx products we’ve researched.
Arc’teryx was slower to transition away from PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) than many of its peers, but according to its latest reporting, most of its products are now PFAS free. PFAS—also called “forever chemicals”—were once common in durable water-repellent (DWR) treatments and waterproof membranes, but are now being phased out due to bans in states like California and New York that became effective in 2025. While those chemicals offer strong water repellency, numerous studies link them to health risks ranging from developmental delays to cancer. Arc’teryx introduced its first PFAS-free Gore-Tex ePE membrane in 2023 and has since made rapid progress toward full PFAS elimination. In 2025, the brand reports that it has phased out intentionally added PFAS from its materials, including transitioning its Gore-Tex products to newer membranes made without intentionally added PFAS chemistry. The brand also monitors manufacturing controls at raw-material suppliers to reduce the risk of PFAS contamination.
Arc’teryx has made measurable progress in sourcing low-impact animal products and natural fibers, though gaps remain. We love that all of its down is certified to the Responsible Down Standard, ensuring traceability and high animal welfare standards. Its wool is certified to the ZQ Merino Standard or the National Declaration of Wool Integrity Program, and it is working toward sourcing Responsible Wool Standard wool (though updates on its progress toward the latter are pending). Additionally, Arc’teryx prioritizes leather from Leather Working Group-certified suppliers, ensuring that all leather is a byproduct of meat production and complies with the group’s restricted substances list. However, it does not disclose whether all its leather meets this standard, putting it behind some peers.
In 2025, Arc’teryx reported that 61% of its polyester, 50% of its nylon, and 25% of its cotton came from preferred sources, which the brand defines as recycled, renewable, organic, or regenerative materials.
Responding to the global garment workers’ crisis, Arc’teryx became a Fair Trade Certified (FTC) partner brand in 2020. Fair Trade certification ensures fair wages, worker safety, and reduced environmental impact through strong chemical and waste standards. Brands also pay a premium on certified products, which funds worker-led community projects ranging from healthcare to clean water. In 2025, 83% of Arc’teryx products were made in Fair Trade Certified facilities, exceeding its 80% target. The brand brought six additional factories into the certification process during the year, five of which achieved certification. Since beginning its partnership with Fair Trade USA, Arc’teryx has helped more than 25 manufacturing facilities work toward certification. This also includes its first footwear factory, making it one of the few outdoor brands with Fair Trade Certified shoes. While Arc’teryx started later than Patagonia, it has moved quickly to expand Fair Trade across its supply chain.
Arc’teryx works with more than 150 Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers and has been increasing its efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of manufacturing across its supply chain. The brand has eliminated on-site coal use at 98% of these facilities, with a goal of reaching 100% by 2030. It is also working to expand renewable energy and improve energy efficiency at supplier facilities. In 2025, 22% of its finished goods and textiles were produced using renewable energy.
Arc’teryx provides both technical and financial support to help suppliers reduce their emissions. In 2025, it supported emissions-reduction projects at 10 facilities, including energy-efficiency audits, renewable-energy assessments, climate target development, and decarbonization planning. These facilities collectively account for 20% of the brand’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier emissions. Arc’teryx has also incorporated expectations around emissions reporting, energy management, renewable energy, climate targets, and waste into its supplier scorecard, allowing environmental performance to factor into sourcing decisions.
Although waste from packaging and operations represents less than 1% of Arc’teryx’s total emissions, the brand recognizes there is still room to reduce its impact. In 2025, Arc’teryx assessed its waste footprint and began tracking waste generation and diversion to identify its largest sources of waste and develop a broader reduction strategy. The company also increased its use of recycled-plastic polybags and replaced some physical product samples with 3D renders. To improve recyclability, it switched shopping bag handles from rope or cord to woven paper and removed plastic lamination from hangtags and packaging cards. Arc’teryx also uses FSC-certified paper for hangtags, hang cards, and footwear boxes and redesigned its footwear boxes to use 80% less ink.
Repairing gear keeps it out of the landfill, and Arc’teryx has invested heavily in this area since launching its ReBird program in 2021. Offering a holistic approach to keep gear in circulation, the program has grown significantly, providing a wealth of resources to keep your jacket or pants ready for climbing, hiking, or skiing. In 2025, the brand repaired 50,000 garments (up from 28,000 in 2024). Most simple repairs (think patching or zipper replacement) are offered for free in-store, while more complex repairs cost a small fee and often need to be mailed in to the brand. Additionally, Arc’teryx developed its own detergents and DWR treatments to help maintain product breathability and water repellency. While you can use these product care solutions (dubbed Nu) to quickly refresh your gear at home, you can also take your gear to Arc’teryx ReBird service centers to have it cleaned by the pros.
If your Arc’teryx gear is sitting in your closet going unused, you can likely trade it to be refurbished and returned to the wild. You’ll get rewarded with an Arc’teryx gift card (worth up to 30% of the original retail price of the product), and the pre-loved gear is sold online at the brand’s used gear shop, ReBird Resale. Eligible items must be in good condition (meaning no large stains, broken zippers, or rips), and currently, the program only takes packs and a selection of apparel. Still, it’s a positive move toward elongating the life of Arc’teryx products and encouraging consumers to shop secondhand. Arc’teryx also partners with Debrand to find responsible disposal methods for unusable products, like recycling and waste-to-energy incineration. In 2024, these efforts diverted more than 22 tons of gear from landfills.
In 2025, Arc’teryx continued to expand its ReBIRD circularity program, opening 17 new service centers for a total of 42 globally. The brand repaired more than 50,000 products across North America, Europe, and Asia, a 27% increase from 2024, while purchases through its resale program increased 24%. Although repairing and cleaning gear has its own environmental cost, research cited by Arc’teryx suggests that adding just nine months to a garment’s useful life can lower its overall carbon, water, and waste impacts by as much as 20%. Additionally, in 2025, Arc’teryx helped pilot the new Testex Circularity Label, a third-party standard that evaluates products based on factors including durability, repairability, and recyclability. One Arc’teryx product qualified for the label, and the brand also contributed feedback that helped refine the standard’s criteria, particularly around preferred and recycled materials.
Arc’teryx began tracking its emissions using Cascale’s Higg Index tools in 2014. Since then, the brand has published thorough updates on its progress toward net-zero emissions by 2050 (defined as a 90% reduction in emissions compared to its 2022 baseline). In the short term, Arc’teryx plans to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions (from owned assets and purchased electricity) by 90% and its Scope 3 emissions (from its supply chain) by 42% by 2030. All of its targets are verified by the Science Based Targets Initiative, which ensures that reduction goals are aligned with Paris Agreement warming thresholds (with 2050 being the organization's deadline for achieving net-zero emissions). Importantly, Arc’teryx uses absolute reduction targets, decoupling emissions from business growth.
Arc’teryx has big goals—but let’s take a look at its progress. Arc’teryx has sourced 100% renewable electricity for its owned and operated buildings since 2020, helping reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions. However, Scope 3 emissions typically constitute the bulk of a brand’s total footprint, and Arc’teryx is no exception, with over 95% of emissions falling into this category. These emissions come from raw materials, manufacturing products, and transporting them to their final destination. Scope 1 and 2 emissions, on the other hand, account for under 5% of its total emissions. In 2025, Arc’teryx reported a 9% increase in total greenhouse gas emissions from 2024. The company had previously expected its absolute emissions to peak in 2025 and begin declining but has since revised that expectation as its understanding of its emissions footprint has evolved. However, Arc’teryx saw a 17% decrease in emissions intensity from 2024 and a 41% decrease since 2022. This means that while the brand’s total emissions have increased, its emissions relative to business growth have decreased. Arc’teryx views this as early progress toward separating business growth from emissions growth but acknowledges that reducing absolute emissions remains its primary goal and that significant work is still needed across its value chain.
Arc’teryx publishes one of the most comprehensive impact reports in the industry, first released in 2019 and then annually each year after. The report covers nearly all of our sustainability criteria, with information about responsible material sourcing, emissions reduction, and circularity initiatives. The brand’s goals and targets are on par with other leaders in the outdoor industry, though they are slightly less ambitious than Patagonia’s (especially in terms of materials and emissions reduction). These goals serve as checkpoints in the brand’s efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Notably, Arc’teryx’s parent company, Amer Sports, also publishes an impact report. In most cases, when a parent company publishes one of these reports, the subsidiary company does not. Often, subsidiaries rely on parent reports that aggregate data, making brand-level insights harder to find (as with The North Face and VF Corporation). Arc’teryx stands out for producing its own brand-specific report and taking ownership of its sustainability progress.
Arc’teryx is a member of the Outdoor Industry Association Climate Action Corps, an organization that helps brands measure and reduce their carbon footprints through industry collaboration. The Climate Action Corps aims to help the outdoor industry achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Additionally, Arc’teryx donates products to youth camps and environmental programs. It also offers a grant for organizations to receive funding for programs that positively impact their communities and encourage outdoor participation. In 2024, Arc’teryx supported just under 90 organizations through this program, with around 80% of funding going to organizations that have leaders that are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.
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These products are solid, middle-of-the-pack options for sustainability. In general, they meet at least half of our sustainability criteria for their category.
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The world of sustainability can be murky, but Better Trail is here to help bring clarity. We’ve exhaustively researched thousands of outdoor gear products, communicated with brands, and created a detailed and rigorous ratings system to bring it all together for you. At the pinnacle is Better Trail Certified.
Better Trail Certified products score 4 out of 5 or higher in our sustainability ratings and generally meet around 80% or more of our criteria. While it’s true that no product is 100% sustainable—all take resources to create and arrive at your doorstep—these products are industry leaders and among the most sustainable on the market.
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