In 2012, Cam Brensinger, a graduate student, founded Dover-based NEMO Equipment, a company whose mission is to design and sustainably manufacture highquality, easy-to-use camping gear. (Courtesy photo)
The outdoor industry has a history of creating a lot of “stuff.” Every year, millions of outdoor products are created.
And of all that gear, only a small percentage is recyclable, leaving the rest to end up in the landfill.
It’s this reality that helped inspire NEMO Equipment CEO and founder Cam Brensinger to pose a question to his product team in 2020: “What if we skipped all the half-steps and went straight to solving the big, hard problems? What if we designed truly sustainable products?”
This ambitious challenge meant rethinking how NEMO sourced raw materials and designed products. It meant taking full responsibility for the product, all the way to its end of life.
Sustainability has always been part of NEMO’s DNA, from its beginning in 2002 to now, more than two decades later. In 2009, the NEMO product team began using recycled polyester to avoid relying on virgin petroleum for new designs.
Later, the brand worked to eliminate PFAS from their products. As of 2025, all NEMO products are made without PFAS. Significant steps were taken to reduce the company’s environmental footprint, but despite all the successes, there was still one big problem left to solve: how to stop their gear from ultimately ending up in a landfill.
In 2023, after Brensinger’s initial challenge and years of careful research and design work, NEMO launched the Endless Promise collection. Each item in this collection is painstakingly engineered to be durable, easily repaired and fully recyclable — when the gear has completed its lifetime of adventure, it can go on to become something new.
To take full responsibility for its products from beginning to end, NEMO also built an infrastructure of recycling and resale partners and will take back all Endless Promise products when customers are done with them.
For gently used products that can be resold, customers can receive a NEMO gift card or payment for the resale value of the item. For products that have reached the end of their adventures, a $20 NEMO gift card is given as thanks for recycling. All customers need to do is mail in their old gear (NEMO even supplies the shipping label).
NEMO’s Endless Promise program started with the redesigned, fully recyclable Forte synthetic sleeping bag — its best-selling backpacking bag in the line. Shortly after, NEMO’s all-new backpacks, the Vantage everyday adventure day pack and the Resolve technical active daypack, joined the EP collection. Today, NEMO’s entire line of backpacking sleeping bags, including down bags, are fully recyclable, along with all of its backpacks. How were they able to achieve this? By prioritizing designs that sourced materials from a single polymer family (currently PET) that could then be easily recycled into high-quality yarn. In their search for recyclable materials, the team uncovered innovations that performed even better than traditional options — a crucial win for a performance-focused company like NEMO.
One such material was CCubed, a foam alternative that is used on the back panel and shoulder straps of NEMO backpacks. CCubed is made from highly breathable polyester staple fibers that actively pull moisture away from the skin, providing a drier, more comfortable carry experience.
NEMO has its sights set on many more initiatives to come, including cutting its carbon emissions in half by 2030. Their next big challenge is applying Endless Promise standards to a category like tents. Tents have long been a challenge for sustainability due to their diverse components and strict performance demands, but this year, NEMO launched the industry’s first bluesign-approved backpacking tent with the updated Dagger OSMO series.
Taking responsibility for the good and bad of bringing a product to market means additional cost, time and, often, frustration. But NEMO’s place in the outdoor industry puts it in a unique position; to avoid this work would mean contributing to the destruction of the very places its customers and employees recreate. Making sustainable choices isn’t just about values. It’s, quite simply, good for business.
Sam Rokos is brand engagement manager for NEMO Equipment Co., a Dover-based maker of outdoor gear. New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility produces “Sustainability Spotlight” monthly for NH Business Review.
