If you’ve ever stood at the base of a towering indoor climbing wall, chalk dust sticking to your sleeves and the distant hum of gym equipment mixing with the gasps of fellow climbers, you’ve probably thought little about what goes into building that structure beyond the bright, textured grips and the sturdy bolts holding it all up. As a third-generation climbing wall supplier, I’ve spent the last 18 years installing walls in gyms, schools, recreation centers, and even backyards across North America, and let me tell you—environmental concerns with climbing walls aren’t just a hypothetical they’re a conversation I’ve had with park rangers, gym owners, and climbers at every trade show I attend. For years, I’ll admit, we glossed over these worries, focused on safety and durability to get walls up and climbing communities growing. But lately, as climate anxiety has seeped into every corner of the outdoor and indoor spaces we love, it’s time to talk about the real environmental tradeoffs of climbing walls, and what my team and I have done to build walls that work for both climbers and the planet. Climbing Walls
Let’s start with the basics: most climbing walls these days fall into two categories: permanent indoor walls, usually made of wood, metal, or high-density plastic panels, and portable or outdoor walls that are often constructed with lighter, temporary materials. The environmental concerns start right at the manufacturing stage, long before a single climber scales a hold. One of the biggest issues that comes up in conversations with gym owners is the type of panels we use. For decades, many climbing wall builders relied on pressure-treated wood for the frames, a process that uses chemicals like copper, chromium, and arsenic (CCA) to prevent rot and insect damage. The problem? CCA-treated wood leaches those heavy metals into soil and groundwater when it’s exposed to moisture, and when it’s eventually discarded, those toxic chemicals can contaminate local ecosystems. I remember a project in Portland, Oregon, back in 2012—we’d installed a wall at a community rec center that had CCA-treated framing, and a local environmental group flagged it after a heavy rain, worried that runoff from the wall’s base was seeping into the nearby creek. It was a wake-up call for my team: we’d been so focused on meeting building code standards that we didn’t think about what happened when that wood aged or wore out.
Then there’s the plastic holds. Those textured, colorful grips that climbers clip into and pull on? Most are made from fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) or polyurethane, both of which are not biodegradable and can take hundreds of years to break down in landfills. Every time a gym replaces worn holds—something that happens every three to five years, as climbers wear down the texture or walls get reconfigured to keep routes fresh—thousands of pounds of plastic ends up in waste streams. Last year, a major climbing gym chain we work with replaced 12,000 holds across three locations, and we had to ship 800 pounds of old holds to a recycling facility that specializes in plastic sports equipment; most landfills won’t accept them because they’re mixed materials, and incinerating them releases toxic fumes. That’s not just bad for the planet—it’s a waste of resources, too. Polyurethane is made from fossil fuels, so each hold is a small contribution to carbon emissions from oil and gas production.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Over the last decade, the climbing industry has made real progress addressing these concerns, and as a supplier, I’ve been at the forefront of shifting our practices. First, we phased out pressure-treated wood completely by 2015, replacing it with cross-laminated timber (CLT) for permanent wall frames. CLT is a mass timber product made by stacking layers of wood at right angles and pressing them together with adhesives, and it has a much lower carbon footprint than steel or concrete—studies show that CLT sequesters carbon for its entire lifespan, whereas steel production generates massive amounts of greenhouse gases. For example, a 2021 study from the Forest Products Society found that a 1,000-square-foot CLT wall frame stores roughly 1,200 pounds of carbon, which is equivalent to taking two cars off the road for a year. We also use reclaimed wood for smaller frame components when possible—last year, we sourced 30% of our secondary framing lumber from deconstructed barns in the Midwest, cutting down on new timber harvesting and keeping waste out of landfills.
When it comes to holds, the biggest game-changer has been the shift to recycled and biodegradable materials. We now offer two lines of holds: one made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, mostly from water bottles and milk jugs that would otherwise sit in landfills, and another line made from bio-based polyurethane derived from soybeans and corn starch. The bio-based holds biodegrade in industrial compost facilities in about 5 years, which is a huge step up from traditional plastic holds. We recently installed a gym in Austin, Texas, that uses 100% bio-based holds across its entire main climbing wall, and the gym’s members have actually responded positively—they love the earthy, matte texture of the bio holds, and they feel good knowing their climbing doesn’t leave a massive plastic footprint. We’ve also started a take-back program for old holds: when a gym replaces its holds, we ship them back to our warehouse, sort them by material, and either recycle the plastic or send the bio-based holds to a commercial composting partner. Last year, we kept over 10,000 pounds of old holds out of landfills through this program, and we’re expanding it to more locations this year.
Another environmental concern that’s less talked about is energy use, especially for indoor climbing walls. Many gyms rely on artificial lighting to keep their walls bright, and heating and cooling to maintain a comfortable climbing temperature (usually around 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit year-round). But with the rise of energy-efficient LED lighting and smart HVAC systems, that’s becoming less of an issue, and we’ve started integrating sustainable design features into our wall installations to help gyms reduce their overall energy footprint. For example, we often specify that walls are positioned to take advantage of natural light, so gyms can use less artificial lighting during the day. We also work with gym owners to install solar panels on gym roofs, and we design wall frames that don’t block existing solar equipment—last year, we installed a wall in Boulder, Colorado, that’s positioned specifically to leave unobstructed roof space for 50 solar panels, which now power 40% of the gym’s energy use. That’s not just good for the planet—it’s a selling point for climbers, too, who are increasingly choosing gyms that prioritize sustainability.
Outdoor climbing walls, which are becoming more popular in backyards and urban parks, come with their own set of environmental concerns, though. When installing a wall outdoors, you have to drill into concrete or bedrock, which can disrupt local ecosystems—disturbing soil, killing plants, and even displacing small animals like insects and reptiles. We’ve had to adapt our installation practices here, too. For example, when installing a wall at a public park in Seattle, we worked with a local ecologist to map the area before we drilled, and we adjusted the wall’s base to avoid a patch of native salal plants that are home to a rare species of butterfly. We also use anchor systems that are designed to minimize drilling: instead of drilling large holes into bedrock, we use expansion bolts that are smaller and leave less of a permanent mark, and we fill in any small holes with native soil after installation. When a wall is eventually removed, we can patch the holes so the area can return to its natural state. For backyard walls, we offer ground-based frame systems that don’t require drilling at all, using heavy-duty concrete footings that can be moved and reused if the homeowner wants to relocate the wall.
Of course, no climbing wall is perfectly environmentally neutral, and there are still gaps we’re working to fill. For example, the adhesives used to hold panels together and the coatings applied to walls to make them durable can still contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are harmful to air quality, both indoors and outdoors. We’re currently testing low-VOC, water-based adhesives and coatings that meet EPA standards, and we’re hoping to switch over to all VOC-free products by 2026. There’s also the issue of transportation: shipping walls from our warehouse to a job site generates carbon emissions, especially for large, permanent walls. We’ve started partnering with local fabrication shops in regions across the US, so we can source and build components closer to where they’re needed, cutting down on shipping distances by an average of 40% since 2020.
What I’ve learned over the years is that environmental concerns with climbing walls aren’t a reason to stop climbing or building walls—they’re a reason to build walls better. Climbing is a sport that connects people to the outdoors, and it’s only right that the spaces we use to train and enjoy that sport also respect the planet we love. I’ve had countless conversations with climbers who worry that indoor climbing is too disconnected from nature, but building sustainable, low-impact walls is a way to bridge that gap—showing that even something as artificial as a climbing wall can work with the environment, not against it.
If you’re a gym owner, school administrator, or someone looking to build a backyard climbing wall and you want to talk about how we can design a wall that meets your climbing needs and aligns with your environmental values, I’d love to chat. We don’t do one-size-fits-all solutions—every wall we build is tailored to the space, the community, and the planet it’s going into. Reach out to our team to start the conversation.
Small Indoor Playground References:
Forest Products Society. (2021). Carbon Sequestration in Mass Timber Structures. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 40(7), 689-705.
Climbing Industry Association. (2022). 2022 State of Climbing Sustainability Report.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2020). Low-VOC Adhesives and Coatings: Best Practices for Indoor Facility Construction.
American Society of Landscape Architects. (2021). Guidelines for Low-Impact Outdoor Recreation Structure Installation.
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