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2020 Sustainability Goals

– Our People –

You can trust the process behind our products: 100% Fair Labor Association compliance in our factories by 2020 will mean that every single person making our product works in safe, healthy, and environmentally friendly conditions. At headquarters and throughout retail, we’ll protect our unique office culture that cultivates diverse personalities and ways of thinking, in order to continue our aggressive pace of progression.

We’re only as good as the impact we have, so we’re investing to improve the lives of everyone that we engage with, all over the world. From the highest standards in international human rights at our factories, to protecting our familial culture at our global headquarters, to considering every person that wears our product: We want to make the most positive impact possible on everyone around us.

Sustainable Culture

Our culture is our foundation, and our biggest asset that we’ve been building since day one. We have more than 150 dogs registered at our office, organic garden plots for employees, fitness reimbursement, plus free locally roasted and organic coffee, espresso and fruit every morning, free local kombucha on tap, skate ramps in the back, 30 composting stations, and local organic soap throughout headquarters. Throughout the year, we have free DIY courses at lunch on things such as how to winter bike commute, how to raise backyard chickens, how to brew your own beer and how to make fermented foods. Flexible schedules, free season passes to our local mountains, and the no-work-on-a-powder-day perk are popular, too.

Responsibility and Factory Workers

We’re 100% committed to ensuring fair labor practices and safe, humane working conditions throughout our supply chain. We have a full team that works diligently to ensure that all of our factories meet high international human rights standards through factory visits, audits, education and trainings. It is our commitment to make sure every single person making our product works in safe, healthy, and environmentally-friendly conditions.

We have a strict Social and Environmental Responsibility Audit Program and Code of Conduct Policy based on the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) and Fair Labor Association (FLA) standards and have established systems to identify and remedy ethical violations. All of our finished good factories have now been audited, and we are currently working with our raw materials suppliers to ensure that they all agree to our standards. By 2020, we have a goal that 100% of our finished goods factories will meet silver standards or higher. Our entire finished good factory list for 2018 is available here.

Environment, Health and Safety

Our strong Restricted Substances List requires that everyone producing our goods uses only chemicals and materials that are safe for people and the environment. We do not allow harmful substances like heavy metals and phthalates in our products, and we require that our suppliers meet the strictest global standards. Our industry-leading partnership with bluesign® ensures that not only the inputs into our product are made with the safest chemicals, but also that the air and water emissions from our processes are clean. For 2020, we have committed to 100% PFC-Free Durable Water Repellency (DWR) across our full product range due to PFCs lasting and uncertain impacts on the environment.

Women's Leadership

In 2003, women made up less than 10% of our leadership team. Today, the number is over 40%. CEO Donna Carpenter created The Women’s Leadership Initiative in 2004, and a lot has been accomplished since then: mentoring programs, organized career development, generous paternity policy, and of course, women’s ride days. In 2017, Donna brought every employee that felt inclined to the Women’s March in D.C., all expenses paid. Gender equity at Burton can be traced back to 1982, when the Burton US Open was established with equal prize money for men and women.

CHILL Non-Profit and Donations

Our non-profit foundation, CHILL, gets thousands of youth on snow every winter, helping them overcome challenges through snowboarding. We also donate hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of product every year to our large Vermont refugee population to keep them warm in the winter, and to underserved youth and families across the country.

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