Our environmental concerns go way back to the innovations we made in vacuum-bag technology to reduce emissions and increase the strength:weight ratio of our whitewater kayaks; but more recently, they are much more significant. In the early 90’s we began to experiment with thermoform technology and released our first thermoformed models in 1996. This represents a dramatic shift in environmental responsibility in the following ways. Thermoforming dramatically reduces airborne emissions and airborne dust, and more importantly, nearly all plastic scrap is recycled. Even the kayaks themselves, eventually retired, can be recycled. Not only is this a real boon environmentally, but it led to vast improvements in working conditions for our employees as well. Essentially, our immaculate workplace leads to much easier quality control, product consistency and pride in workmanship.