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KEEN Offsets Travel for Grassroots Outdoor Alliance Early Show

The Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, KEEN Footwear, and Native Energy are proud to announce that travel for 100 Grassroots buyers, will be offset by Native Energy for this year’s Grassroots Early Show, which was held June 16th-19th.


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ASHEVILLE, NC– The Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, KEEN Footwear, and Native Energy are proud to announce that travel for Grassroots retail members, totaling 100 buyers, will be offset by Native Energy for this year’s Grassroots Early Show, which was held June 16th-19th at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort, Snowbird, Utah.

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is a group of independent outdoor shops dedicated to the sustainability of specialty outdoor retail and the quality of the outdoor enthusiast’s experience. Each year, Grassroots hosts a unique Early Buying Show, a preview of Top Brands in the industry. As a group of independent retailers, Grassroots has committed to offsetting the travel of its buyers and KEEN as the newest partner to the group stepped up to cover the cost.

Keen, a vendor member of the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, made the $1200 investment to Native Energy on behalf of Grassroots in an effort to make the Early Show a more sustainable event. KEEN and the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance acknowledge that offsetting travel is not a total solution, and strive each year towards making the Early Show a more sustainable event.

Native Energy is known for its transparency, and the entire offset purchase amount will go toward a Native Energy project called “Farmer-owned Distributed Wind Turbines.” This project was chosen because it benefits independent farmers who have been working family-owned, heritage farmlands for multiple generations. To read about the details of this project, visit: http://www.nativeenergy.com/projects.html#4http://www.nativeenergy.com/projects.html#4 purchasing.

Native Energy was also selected because of the depth of resources it offers to businesses of all sizes. The Grassroots Outdoor Alliance and KEEN are actively encouraging the membership to incorporate other sustainability services from Native Energy into their retail businesses as well as communities and events, as the organization takes collective steps toward educating its membership about sustainable business practices. The Early Show will include an educational overview on Native Energy for its membership to facilitate this connection.

Grassroots chose to host the event at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort in Snowbird, Utah once again this year and has committed to the location into 2011. Snowbird is known for its sustainability efforts, and was honored by the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) in 2007 with its prestigious Golden Eagle Award for Overall Environmental Excellence. What’s more, this spring Snowbird was also honored with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Achievement Award and the State of Utah’s 2007 Earth Day Award. To read more about Snowbird’s environmental platform, click here http://www.snowbird.com/environment/index.html.

About KEEN Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at KEEN encompasses a broad range of activities from community partnerships, operational and product-related sustainability initiatives, to managing the expectations of the KEEN Workplace Code of Conduct. The KEEN vision is to be an outdoor brand that delivers industry-changing, high-quality products for all outdoor enthusiasts, and to demonstrate integrity and leadership, especially on social and environmental commitments, while promoting a more inclusive outdoors community. KEEN is a young company, founded in 2003; its employees are committed to making CSR integral to the brand, and to being transparent with its customers and stakeholders along the way. To read more about KEEN and their environmental initiatives, click here http://www.keenfootwear.com/about.aspx

About Grassroots Outdoors Alliance
The Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is a group of independent outdoor shops dedicated to the sustainability of specialty outdoor retail, and the quality of the outdoor enthusiast’s experience. We stand together to help facilitate a market for performance-oriented, revolutionary products, create a unified marketing presence for high quality, local outdoor specialists, and help protect and sustain the quality and access to the environment on a local, national and global level.

For additional information, please visit: http://www.grassrootsoutdoors.com