It makes a lot of sense for a company that gets its money from campers and hikers to protect the environment in which those campers camp and those hikers hike. But of course it’s not just a financial investment for many of those companies. A lot of people have started companies in the outdoor industry because they themselves love to climb those mountains and camp in those forests, and want to keep those places beautiful.

Like Dwight Aspinwall and Perry Dowst, the founders of Jetboil, a Manchester, NH company that makes extremely efficient outdoor cooking equipment. “Jetboil’s connection to NH goes back to our founders’ childhood vacations in the White Mountains,” says Lisa Eaton, Jetboil’s Marketing Projects Coordinator. “They both came to NH as kids to camp and hike. When they decided to launch Jetboil, their initial consumer research was done by talking to Appalachian Trail hikers in New Hampshire, and subsequent product testing was done in the Presidential Range, as it still is.” Today, Jetboil’s website showcases its products against the same backdrop that served as the location of Aspinwall and Dowst’s first camp stove experiences; most of the photos used on the site were taken in the White Mountains.

So it’s no surprise that their company tries to preserve those vistas. Besides making their cooking systems as fuel-efficient as possible, about twice as efficient as traditional camp stoves, this fall Jetboil will be releasing the CrunchIt, a fuel canister recycling tool. “This device will allow people to safely vent residual fuel from their left-over fuel canisters and then puncture the cans, making them ready for the recycling bin,” Eaton says.

This year Jetboil also became a member of the Conservation Alliance, a group of companies in the outdoor industry that fund conservation efforts. To promote the Conservation Alliance, Jetboil recently sold its Flash cooking system at half-price at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Trade Show in Salt Lake City, Utah, August 3rd through 6th, and donated all proceeds to the Alliance.

Also at the trade show was David Kulow, president of the Sunapee-based company All Terrain (and happy Jetboil customer). All Terrain was founded in 1999 by Todd Hakanson, who developed Herbal Armor after DEET bug spray from a leaky can ate through his backpack and melted the keys on his calculator. Herbal Armor is an all-natural insect repellant that doesn’t put any toxic chemicals on your skin or into the environment, and is now one of many products – none of them toxic or tested on animals – made by All Terrain.

The company is currently working on safer sunscreens, following recent concerns about a possible link between retinyl palmitate and oxybenzone (common ingredients in most sunscreens) and cancer. And, Kulow says, “many resorts are now concerned about the chemicals in sunscreens for the harm they do to coral and tropical fish, so we’re making products that are reef-safe.”

All Terrain is also working on products made specifically for children, in an effort to get kids active and outside. The company is involved with the Outdoor Foundation, with Kulow serving on its board, and helps support Outdoor Nation.

By moving to Sunapee in 2002, All Terrain was able to become a truly local company. “New Hampshire employs about 54,000 people devoted to the outdoor [industry],” says Kulow, explaining how All Terrain is able to use NH suppliers and NH contract manufacturers. “We’re very proud to be a part of that and to contribute to it.”

Kulow adds that he is also proud to work with Peterborough-headquartered Eastern Mountain Sports, serving on the board of the Outdoor Industry Association with EMS CEO Will Manzer.

EMS is undeniably a very big company, with a lot of weight to throw into conservation efforts. In 2007, EMS decided to focus its charitable contributions on a single organization to make the biggest impact, choosing the aforementioned Conservation Alliance. Their $500,000 pledge to the Alliance is the largest donation in EMS’s history.

At the grand opening of the Gilson Pond Campground in Monadnock State Park on August 18th, a partnership between EMS and New Hampshire’s state parks was announced. EMS will advertise the parks in its stores, and in exchange the parks will promote EMS and its products. EMS may also provide uniforms for park employees, and create programs for campers.

The Timberland Company – another member of the Conservation Alliance – recently caught our attention here at Conservation New Hampshire when they announced that their “Green Index” would include all of their footwear lines by 2012. The “Green Index” rates products on a scale of 0 to 10, with a lower number indicating a smaller footprint from greenhouse gases, use of chemicals, and resource consumption. This transparency allows customers to know which products are best for the environment, and increases the company’s incentive to be more eco-friendly.

Timberland’s Stratham headquarters are also noticeably green. The grounds were recently re-landscaped, with invasive plant species replaced by native, mostly drought-resistant perennials that will require less water and fertilizer. At the same time, the corporate Victory Garden, which was started in 2008 and produces food for the internal Timberland community and the New Hampshire Food Bank, doubled in size, and now includes low-maintenance and pesticide-free fruit trees and blueberry bushes.

NEMO is also a member of the Conservation Alliance. The tent manufacturer, run out of an historic mill building in Nashua, stopped using PVC in its products back in 2006, and uses non-toxically-anodized (and recyclable) tent poles. The Nano OZ is a two-person tent made almost entirely of recycled or recyclable materials, and products in the Ditto Series are mostly made from disassembled tent samples and manufacturing seconds.

But NEMO is involved in conservation efforts beyond their products. “We do our best to get involved with the organizations and key players in the state and nationally working on issues like getting youth into the outdoors and environmental and land conservation issues,” says Kate Ketschek, NEMO’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations (who was also at the aforementioned Outdoor Retailer Trade Show). In 2007 the company adopted the northern end of Jenness Beach in Rye (“a favorite NEMO surf spot,” Ketschek says), through the Blue Ocean Society, and once a month NEMO employees pick up and document the trash on that beach. Every NEMO employee also gets a day off each month to volunteer for a conservation and/or community organization of his or her choosing. And the company donates to a number of environmental organizations, including the Access Fund and the National Wildlife Federation, as well as community efforts like Nashua’s Habitat for Humanity and Newmarket’s Club Chameleon.

“As NEMO continues to grow and mature as a company, we want to be involved in the issues we feel passionately about,” Ketschek says. And it’s clear that NEMO feels passionate about our environment – protecting it and helping others enjoy it.

NEMO, like Jetboil, All Terrain, EMS and Timberland, has a particular connection to New Hampshire’s outdoors. NEMO founder and president, and Manchester native, Cam Brensinger returned to the state after going to school in Rhode Island and Vermont, “because of his love of the outdoors,” says Ketschek. “NH offers a great coastline for surfing, the Whites for backpacking, lakes and rivers for canoeing and kayaking, and plenty of trails for mountain biking and running.”

“If you look around the state and around northern New England, you’ll notice a lot of outdoor companies have made this area their home,” she adds. “That speaks a lot to the natural environment NH has to offer.”

The fact that many of those companies give back to that environment says even more.