Excellent
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Mar 25, 2026Norrøna is showing the outdoor industry what’s possible through its comprehensive approach to sustainability and circularity. The Norwegian brand has set one of the most ambitious emissions targets around, aiming to achieve net zero by 2029 (20 years before Arc’teryx and 10 years before Patagonia’s stated goals). To reduce the impact of its gear, it makes nearly all its products from recycled materials and offers comprehensive repair services to bring your gear back to life when something does go awry. It’s also turning its Norrøna House Flagship store in Norway into a hub for circular business: It offers rentals, wash and repair services, and a used gear section.
This sustainability analysis evaluates both product- and brand-level initiatives to capture the full scope of Norrøna’s efforts to reduce its environmental impact. Our research draws from the brand’s published sustainability data, third-party certifications (a cornerstone of our process), and correspondence with brand representatives. We have independently researched over a dozen Norrøna products and counting, giving us a broad understanding of the brand’s use of low-impact materials, chemistry, and manufacturing practices.
You can explore our analyses of other outdoor brands, or use our advanced search to find products that align with your sustainability values.
Norrøna provides lots of reporting on its sustainability practices, earning it an “Excellent” transparency rating. It publishes in-depth, multiyear data on its material use and emissions on its website, giving us a clear view of its progress and areas for growth. The brand publishes sustainability goals and progress updates on easily understandable, consumer-facing webpages across its site. While it does not provide exact percentages of recycled or Bluesign-approved materials on its product pages, Norrøna includes key information about its carbon footprint and supply chain that most brands avoid putting on their sites. Additionally, its representatives have been highly responsive to questions about its practices. All in all, we think Norrøna is doing a great job of providing transparency into its sustainability data.
Norrøna is making an impressive effort to replace all of its conventional fabrics with recycled alternatives, leading the outdoor industry in low-impact material use. Recycled materials come with a much smaller carbon footprint than their virgin alternatives, making them a key component of many brands’ greenhouse gas reduction strategies. Norrøna has been working to reduce the footprint of its materials since 2014, steadily increasing its use of recycled materials across its products. In 2025, Norrøna reported using 94% recycled polyester and 94% recycled nylon by weight, placing it among the industry’s top performers in this metric.
Nearly all of the Norrøna products we’ve researched feature recycled content, supporting the brand’s claims. Its recycled polyester is made from recycled soda bottles, while its nylon comes from post-industrial sources like fishing nets, carpeting, and textiles. All in all, the brand has made steady progress toward its goal of using only responsible materials (defined as recycled, organic, and certified responsible) in its products; in 2025, it reported that 90% of its synthetic fibers were responsibly sourced.
Bluesign-approved materials are produced in accordance with rigorous standards for environmental and chemical impacts throughout the supply chain, and a formal partnership through the Bluesign system signifies a brand’s commitment to responsible chemistry. Norrøna has been a Bluesign System Partner since 2016, and has sourced extensive Bluesign-approved materials ever since. In 2024 (the most recent available data), the brand reported that over 70% of its fabrics were Bluesign-approved, ranking among the highest shares in the outdoor industry. For comparison, Helly Hansen (another top performer) used just under 60% Bluesign-approved materials that same year, while the materials accounted for around 70% of REI’s total fabric use. Norrøna set a goal to eliminate hazardous chemicals from its supply chain by 2029, ensuring that all its materials are certified to either Bluesign or Oeko-Tex standards.
In June 2025, Norrøna completed its decade-long phase-out of PFAS from its products. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were once the go-to chemistry used in durable water-repellent treatments and waterproof membranes. Due to their environmental persistence and adverse health impacts, however, states like California and New York banned the chemicals from use in textiles in 2025, prompting outdoor brands to walk away from fluorinated chemistry.
Norrøna has since replaced its traditional Gore-Tex waterproof membranes with Gore-Tex’s PFAS-free ePE membrane, and the brand continues to test every material used in its supply chain for PFAS content (including fabrics, trims, hang tags, and packaging). Compared to other brands in the industry, Norrøna’s phase-out completion landed toward the later end of the spectrum (although it began the process in 2015, the same year Fjallraven eliminated all intentionally added PFAS from its products).
We’re impressed with Norrøna’s extensive use of responsibly-sourced natural fibers: As of 2025, all of the brand’s natural fibers meet its responsible sourcing criteria, which include third-party certified responsible wool and down, recycled wool and cotton, and certified organic cotton. In 2025, all of Norrøna’s down and most of its wool were certified to the Responsible Down Standard and Responsible Wool Standard (RWS), respectively, which ensure high standards for animal welfare and land management. Wool that was not certified to the RWS came from recycled sources. The brand did not report using any leather that year.
Additionally, in 2025, Norrøna used 100% organic cotton, which it blends with recycled polyester for strength and durability. Growing cotton using organic practices reduces the chemical impacts associated with the pesticide-intensive crop, and, as a result, many brands have begun sourcing organic cotton in the past several years.
For many of its products, Norrøna discloses the manufacturing location along with detailed factory information, including worker wages, the Higg tools in use, social welfare audit status, packaging initiatives, energy sources, and whether the facility has an emissions reduction plan. It also publishes this information on an easy-to-understand website. Norrona became a member of the Fair Wear Foundation in 2024, which regularly audits factories for safe working conditions, human rights, and living wages. The brand conducts on-site assessments at factories every three years, and in 2024, it conducted seven factory assessments: three through Fair Wear and four through Better Work. In its 2024 Transparency Act Report, Norrøna disclosed insights, goals, and action plans for issues that arose during supplier assessments to ensure greater transparency in its supply chain. The brand will be receiving its first publicly-available Fair Wear evaluation in early 2026.
Packaging is a significant source of waste in the outdoor industry. We love that Norrøna uses over 80% recycled or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified cardboard in its cartons. (FSC-certified paper products are sourced from responsibly managed forests that protect forest ecosystems, reduce climate impact, minimize chemical use, and support worker welfare and indigenous rights.) The brand plans to phase out all non-certified and virgin cardboard in the coming year. Additionally, around 80% of the poly bags Norrøna uses are made with 100% post-consumer recycled materials. The brand is also working toward packaging gear in a single poly bag (rather than individual bags) for carton shipments.
Norrøna leads the outdoor industry with its comprehensive repair service offerings, helping you keep your Norrøna gear in play longer when a zipper breaks or you split a seam. At its 13 dedicated repair centers, the brand repairs approximately 22,000 products a year, an impressively high number when compared to similar brands. Norrøna offers a five-year warranty on its gear, covering free repairs for damage not caused by normal wear and tear. Once a product is repaired, you get two-year warranty coverage for the specific repair. Through Norrøna’s warranty, you can also order spare parts for at-home repairs (so you can avoid the hassle of shipping your gear to the brand).
We also love that Norrøna can repair products that aren’t covered by warranty for a fee, with prices ranging from $10 for a button replacement to $72 for a long zipper replacement. The brand offers a wide range of repair offerings, including patching rips and tears, fixing stitching failures, changing hook-and-loop and elastic components, repairing backpack shoulder straps and frames, and replacing zippers. It publishes a transparent repair menu on its website to help you determine whether your gear is fixable (and how much it will cost to repair). Notably, Norrøna can repair products regardless of age, but it has a limited number of spare parts for older models.
Circularity initiatives like resale platforms and garment recycling services help you keep your gear out of the landfill, extending its lifespan. We love that Norrøna accepts damaged products for recycling or upcycling through its REcycle program, available in-store at brick-and-mortar locations and online through its REpair service. The brand states that it will recycle products using the most responsible method, which varies depending on the condition and materials used in the product. Typically, Norrøna first tries to repair products at its Lithuanian factory. When garments can’t be repaired, Norrøna partners with ReCouture, a Norwegian design startup, which upcycles old products into new, one-of-a-kind pieces available for purchase on its website and at flagship stores.
At its Norrøna House Flagship Store near Oslo, the brand sells pre-owned, repaired garments, previous-season products, and upcycled gear. The brand hopes to launch an online resale platform or expands these offerings to other stores in the future. Notably, Norrøna also offers rental services for backpacks, ski bags, tents, and outerwear at its flagship store. At the same store, it can wash and reapply the durable water-repellent treatment to waterproof gear, helping you maintain it for longer.
Norrøna works to avoiding overproduction as part of its zero-waste policy, and has made impressive efforts to maximize the efficiency of its materials. In addition to reducing material waste by an impressive margin, the brand has partnered with chemical recycling companies to recycle cutting waste material into new fabrics. By doing this, it can turn scrap fabric into usable fabric, keeping it out of landfills.
Norrøna has set one of the most aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals in the outdoor industry, aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2029 (its 100th anniversary). Notably, this target is 10 years earlier than Patagonia’s and 20 years earlier than Arc’teryx’s net-zero target. The brand has been tracking its greenhouse gas emissions using Higg Index tools since 2020, when it measured its baseline at 6,045 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).
In 2025, the brand emitted 8,027 tCO2e, an increase from its baseline measurement. Norrøna attributed the increase in emissions to its greater reliance on air freight, noting that the war in Ukraine has prevented it from using rail transport across Europe. Air freight is notorious for its high emissions intensity when compared to other forms of transportation, and in 2025, product transportation accounted for almost half of the brand’s Scope 3 (supply chain) emissions. Notably, in 2023, the brand set the goal to use less than 1% air freight for its product transportation, which we imagine it will return to when feasible. All told, Norrøna’s footprint is among the smallest in the outdoor industry, and we hope to see it achieve its ambitious net-zero target in 2029.
Annual impact reports offer a look into a brand’s sustainability progress and material and emissions targets, while providing transparency into its practices. Norrøna published an annual impact report until 2023, and has since transitioned to publishing its material, emissions, and circularity data on its website. Although it did not publish a 2025 report, the brand did provide extensive data on its material use and emissions on its website. Compared to other brands in the industry, Norrøna’s analysis and reporting on emissions and low-impact materials is exceptionally clear and open.
The brand also publishes in-depth information about its repair services and highlights its resale, recycling, and other circularity programs at its flagship store in Norway. It reports on its responsible manufacturing practices in a separate report and lists all its factory locations, including pertinent demographic data. Because its sustainability webpages are more comprehensive than many impact reports we have read, we count them as Norrøna’s report.
Norrøna launched a 1% for Nature initiative, donating 1% of total sales to environmental organizations, including The Ocean Cleanup and Fashion for Good. The brand is also a member of the Outdoor Industry Association’s Clean Chemistry and Materials Coalition, which helps outdoor brands develop action plans to eliminate harmful chemicals from their materials.
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These products are among the most sustainable on the market and earn our Better Trail Certified distinction. They often meet 80% or more of our sustainability criteria for their category.
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.
These products are among the least sustainable in their product category and have significant room for improvement. Most meet about 25% or less of our sustainability criteria.
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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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