Safety, traceability, and responsible sourcing
Sustainability doesn’t stop at materials. For every product that wears the Stone Monkey name we insist on three core guarantees:
• No harmful substances. Strict limits on lead, cadmium, azo dyes, formaldehyde, phthalates and other restricted chemicals.
• Ethical production. Suppliers must meet robust labour and human-rights standards; fair pricing and on-time payment are part of the contract, not an afterthought.
• Full traceability. We track the origin of key materials and processes so customers can see where and how their gear was made.
These are not optional box-ticks. They are the baseline — the holds you refuse to let go of when the route steepens.
Product safety and testing
Everything that leaves our facilities or our partners is tested to the standards required by the product type and the markets we ship to.
Core practices:
• Regulatory compliance for flammability, labeling, chemical limits and more.
• Independent, accredited third-party testing and declarations of conformity.
• A strict restricted substances policy enforced across suppliers.
• Category-specific rules for sensitive goods (youth clothing, textiles that touch skin, electronics).
• Clear, usable labeling and care instructions so your kit lasts and behaves as intended.
Key checks you’ll never see but can trust: flammability tests where required, chemical screening tied to destination rules, physical safety checks for trims and hardware, and future EMC testing for electronics or smart accessories.
Packaging, PCR and smarter choices
We don’t celebrate plastic — but we do use it smartly. All in-house climbing wear orders ship in post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic bags. They protect the product while cutting demand for fresh plastic and keeping waste out of landfills and oceans.
Today’s facts:
• Our packaging averages **≥70% recycled plastic** content across global delivery.
• In North America, in-house packaging now runs **90–100% PCR** content.
• We’re actively trialling viable non-plastic alternatives and will move when those alternatives meet durability and carbon-cost tests.
Logistics, regional fulfilment, and emissions
Distance is a footprint. Our logistics choices are designed to reduce delivery miles and the emissions that follow them.
How we manage it:
• Strategic placement of print & delivery partners close to our customer regions to shorten supply chains and cut transport emissions.
• Regional fulfillment performance: roughly 86% of orders are fulfilled within the same region; \~93% of produced and shipped orders are made in the same country where they’re delivered.
• We’re steadily expanding our capability to improve quality control and raise compliance across the board.
• Collaboration with carriers to measure and reduce GHGs through routing, consolidation and lower-carbon options.
Water stewardship
Our double materiality assessment is plain: the biggest water impact happens upstream — cotton fields and textile mills. While our in-house printing and embroidery produce no wastewater, raw material production is water intensive. That means real progress depends on partnerships and sector-wide change.
Practical moves:
• Strengthening supplier partnerships and demanding better traceability for raw fibres.
• Increasing low-impact fibres and certified fabrics in our collections.
• Continuing on-demand production to avoid overproduction and waste.
• Backing waterless printing technologies and safer ink chemistries.
Kornit partnership and on-demand climbing clothing production
We’ve scaled waterless, on-demand climbing wear printing in our designt. The advantages are tangible: no pre-treatment wash, non-toxic biodegradable inks, and production that only happens when a customer orders.
Why it matters:
• Waterless printing removes pre/post wash steps — fewer chemicals, less water, less energy.
• Certified inks that meet OEKO-TEX® Eco Passport and comparable standards.
• On-demand manufacturing reduces inventory waste and excess production — the root of much textile harm.
Major lifecycle analyses (LCAs) are planned as we deepen measurement and transparency in 2025.
Supplier standards and continuous improvement
We place responsibility upstream. Suppliers must document and validate safety and compliance; we audit, we dialogue, and we support them to improve.
Expectations:
• Accredited third-party testing and accessible compliance documentation.
• Tailored controls by product category and destination market.
• Collaboration on fair pricing and timely payment so suppliers can meet living-wage and safety commitments.
• Audits, screening, and a roadmap for continuous improvement.
Cast iron targets and commitments
We set measurable goals and recognise some impacts are long-term. Current focus areas:
• Maintain or improve regional fulfilment ratios that cut delivery miles.
• Continue global transition to PCR packaging and move to viable non-plastic alternatives.
• Run LCAs on our top products and fulfilment techniques (major push in 2025).
• Strengthen supplier auditing and documentation.
• Work with carriers to quantify and reduce shipping emissions.
• Grow in-house product ranges and fulfilment sites to raise quality and shorten chains.
What this means for climbing and the outdoors
When you buy Stone Monkey you choose gear designed to last, made transparently, and shipped with a lower footprint whenever possible. Expect:
• Clear origin traces for key items.
• Packaging with high recycled content and ongoing improvement.
• A climbing brand movement that channels purchase proceeds back into climbing communities and projects, not empty marketing.
Transparency is non-negotiable
We’ll publish product origin details, testing summaries and progress updates on supplier audits and LCAs where feasible. If you want to know where a particular item was made or tested, we’ll provide the answers or explain the steps to get them.
A living programme, ready to iterate for the future
Change is uneven. Some fixes we can do in a day; others—like water in global cotton supply chains—need industry scale. We’ll fix what we can inside our walls and push the market where we cannot. Our commitments will evolve as we measure, learn and scale.
The climb continues
Protecting the places we love is part of what it means to be a tribe. We’ll keep reporting our progress, tightening standards, and raising the bar for partners. For more detail on a specific product, supplier or LCA plan, we’ll prioritise transparency for the items that matter most.
Thank you for supporting our vision.
Stone Monkey Climbing Wear