by Nicholas Lee

It’s mid January in the Sierra Nevadas and it has been ten days since there was a cloud in the sky or the daytime high was less than 60°F.  It hasn’t snowed for two weeks.  As I stand atop Donner Pass at 7000’ and look at the muddy brown slopes around me, I realize that climate change is real and its effects are tangible.  Not to be brought down by the unseasonably warm weather, I change gears and drive 600 miles to sunny Newport Beach where I will pretend it’s summer without any stretch of my imagination.  While snowboarding and surfing depend on a stable climate for snow and waves to ride, the majority of the products used in these sports have been manufactured unconscionably for as long as they have been produced on a large scale.  However, there is a changing tide in these industries as more brands and consumers emphasize environmental sustainability. 

I was lucky enough to speak with representatives from Comet Skateboards, Wavetribe, Reef, Sole Technology, a former Quiksilver executive, and attend one of the largest action sports industry trade shows.  Through my discussions with these people I have gained an elementary understanding of the role environmental sustainability plays in their industries.  Surfing and skateboarding have over 14.5 million participants combined and sell more than $7.5 billion worth of product annually.   In an industry this large, development of greener products is crucial.  I will discuss types of “eco-friendly” products available, how different companies and organizations plan to integrate or separate “eco-friendly” products from the normal products lines, the consequences this will have, the market for “eco-friendly” products, the difficulties of advertising “eco-friendly” products, the concern of “greenwashing” in the industry, the subsequent need for a independent “green certification” process, and the differences between small “core” companies and large established corporations.

Clearly, few products are actually “eco-friendly.” Most every product involves harvesting materials from our world and manufacturing them into something useable, producing waste and using energy.  While some of today’s products may be made with recycled or organic materials and manufactured in a plant that uses green energy or buys carbon offsets, there will always be environmental costs.  More accurately, these products should be called “eco-friendlier” or “more sustainable” rather than “eco-friendly” and “sustainable.”  However, those names are not nearly as promising or enticing to a consumer and will not likely to catch on anytime soon.

Clothing has seen a much more drastic shift towards sustainability than hard goods have.  This is because switching to organic cotton in the manufacturing process only requires paying a little bit more.  Developing and testing eco-friendly technologies for hard goods, such as boards, is a much more demanding and expensive process.  The universal consensus among the representatives I talked to about developing eco-friendly products for this industry is that the product must not suffer in performance, style, or any way for the sake of the environment. If it does, it simply will not sell.  Unfortunately that means eco-friendly products currently cost more on average because they are of comparable quality but are made with more expensive materials.

Many action sports companies, including big players like Quiksilver, Volcom, and Billabong, have begun either making sustainable 100% organic cotton clothing lines or blending organic cotton into their entire clothing lines. Quiksilver has annually increased the percentage of organic cotton in their entire apparel line; it is now almost 30%.  Other eco-friendly clothing options becoming more available, both to brands and consumers include recycled polyethylene terephthalate (P.E.T.), bamboo, hemp, and flax linen.  Bamboo, hemp, and flax all make good new materials because they require very little fertilizers or pesticides to grow and grow quickly, therefore rendering them easily renewable.  P.E.T. is essentially melted down recycled plastic bottles.  Some sustainable editions now use vegetable-based dyes instead of the standard toxic ones.  A normal cotton t-shirt is harmful for the environment because of the large amount of pesticides and fertilizers used to grow the cotton.  The change towards sustainability in apparel and soft goods is especially notable because soft goods represent the majority of most companies’ profits and business.

Shoes have been made greener by companies like Sole Technology, Reef, and Simple Shoes through the use of new manufacturing processes and materials.  Sole Technology is the parent brand to eS, Etnies, Emerica, and ThirtyTwo, all high performance skateboarding and snowboarding shoe and boot brands.  This company is working on making greener shoes without any compromise to performance.  A normal shoe construction uses petroleum based glues that emit large quantities of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC).  Green construction methods include using water-based low VOC glues, adding recycled rubber to the sole mixture as well as more sustainable fabrics like hemp.  However, because of the demands of high performance skateboard shoes, they have not been able to use more than 10% recycled rubber in the soles.  Sole Technology has also taken drastic steps towards making their office spaces greener.  Reef, primarily a surf lifestyle brand, is able to construct shoes with high recycled rubber content without having to worry about performance.  Additionally, they have started using chrome-free leather (chrome is a heavy metal that can leach into water supplies, poisoning them) hemp, jute, organic cotton, recycled ethylene-vinyl acetate(EVA) foam, cellulose based foam, and water based glues.  Simple Shoes makes their shoes with carpet padding, a recycled post-consumer EVA foam, for cushioning instead of new EVA foam, recycled car tires as soles, and glue-free assembly on some models. 

Sustainable hard good manufacturing has advanced drastically in the past few years.  Unlike the clothing industry, where eco-friendly hemp products have always been available, green boards were unheard of in surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding until recently.  The number of eco-conscious options in each sport is growing each season.
A normal skateboard is made by pressing 7 plies of maple together with a copious amount of petroleum-based glues.  The boards are then sprayed with a petroleum-based finish before a toxic dye-containing graphic is heat-transferred on.  Comet Skateboards of Ithaca, New York, manufacturers its own boards domestically, a rarity in today’s world.  The company uses Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified woods, harvested within 100 miles of their factory.  Instead of using the industry standard, petroleum-based, VOC laden glues, they use a proprietary soy protein-based resin.  Instead of using carbon fiber to stiffen the longboards designed for high-speed downhill riding, Comet uses a bio-composite made of annually renewable plants like flax, bamboo, jute, and hemp.  Finally, they hand screen-print each board using eco-friendly screen-printing ink.  The end product is a completely biodegradable skateboard that can withstand the same abuse as any other board.  Some other skateboard companies like Bamboo SK8 are following suit and starting to use FSC certified woods or more easily renewable materials such as bamboo.

A company called Green Foam Blanks makes just that: eco-friendly foam blanks for surfboard shapers.  The standard surfboard is made by shaping a polyurethane (PU) blank, a large unshaped piece of foam, and covering that shaped PU foam with fiberglass cloth and resin.  The PU blank is petroleum-based and the resins used to set the glass are highly toxic and produce large amounts of VOCs. Green Foam Blanks constructs their blanks out of at least 50% recycled PU foam from old surfboards and foam waste from the shaping process.  They offer their blanks at prices equal to standard blanks.  Many large name shapers and board manufacturers, such as Al Merrick and Lost, have started using these blanks when a customer requests them.  These boards are certainly far from completely biodegradable, but they are a step in the right direction.  

Wavetribe, a small but fast growing brand, is another company working to make eco-friendly surf accessories.  They make surfboard bags out of recycled tarp, vegetable-based foam padding, hemp fabrics, and corn-based plastics.  They have also pioneered the use of recycled pre-consumer scrap PU to make surfboard leashes.  An eco-friendly traction pad is also in the works.

Snowboards are notoriously difficult to make eco-friendly because of the high performance demands of snowboarding.  A standard board consists of a wood core, fiberglass, and carbon fiber, held together with toxic petroleum-based resins, steel edges made from virgin metal, a petroleum-based Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) base, toxic dyes in the graphics, and finally a clear coat finish that emits mass quantities of VOCs. Mervin Manufacturing domestically produces GNU and Lib Tech snowboards using the most eco-friendly snowboard manufacturing process available today.  They use only FSC certified wood, low VOC epoxy, soy based sidewalls, and a castor bean oil topsheet.   They recycle all of the waste and byproducts of the manufacturing process and use green power.  Burton, the industry leader in sales, has released one model featuring recycled materials and a FSC certified wood core.  These green efforts have even garnered the New York Time’s attention.  The trend towards developing green boards seems to have emerged last in snowboarding, which seems odd, as the sport is arguably the most dependent on a stable climate.
Recycling options for surf and skateboards are also growing. ReSurf pulverizes old boards donated to their project into a fine dust that can then be mixed into concrete and asphalt mixes.  This process not only effectively recycles the old surfboards that would otherwise be sitting in a landfill, but makes road surfaces more durable.   Comet Skateboards offers customers the option of returning their old board for a discount on a new one.  Old boards are then sent through a wood chipper and composted. 

Companies like Reef and Sole Technology have also made substantial in-house efforts to make their offices greener.  Roain Atwood of Sole Technologies spent almost a year compiling an extensive report on Sole Technology’s environmental impact from carbon emissions to water consumption to the number of owls displaced by their office buildings in Lake Forest, CA.  Working towards being completely carbon neutral by 2020 and other environmental goals, Sole Technologies has installed 616 solar panels that produce 275,000 kWh of electricity every year, started using an “eco-font” that using 20% less ink, installed waterless urinals that will save 325,000 gallons of water annually, and implemented an extensive recycling program.   When Reef recently moved into a new building, they cut sky lights in ceiling to reduce lighting costs and power usage, installed recycled carpet, used polished concrete instead of tiling or carpeting for most floor space, and implemented a reclaimed water system in which runoff from the planters is used to flush toilets. For larger companies like Reef and Sole Technology, simple in-house efforts such as these can have significant effects. 

One issue arising from the scramble to make eco-friendly products is the need for some sort of eco-certification process.  The average consumer does not have the knowledge, time, or desire to understand how each and every product that claims to be “green,” “sustainable,” or “eco-friendly” is made and determine how eco-friendly each one is.  While no such certification currently exists, I repeatedly encountered support and enthusiasm for such an organization.  An independent third-party certification would assure that brands and companies that have developed sustainable products get the recognition they deserve and prevent consumers from simply buying the gear with the biggest advertising campaign.

Another sentiment echoed through the interviews I conducted was the difficulty of marketing eco-friendly products.   It is difficult to advertise the materials and technology used to make technical goods like shoes and boards because a lot of the terms and descriptions are incomprehensible to the consumer.  Additionally, the brand does not want to come off as preachy while advertising their eco-friendly line.   If the company has a separate green line, they do not want to draw attention to the fact that the rest of their products are made with no concern for their negative effects they have on the environment.  Most brands have many values and themes that they want to advertise that simply get priority over environmental sustainability.  Unfortunately, eco-friendliness is simply not that big of a selling point for the majority of consumers in today’s action sports industry.   One stroke of luck that companies have had with marketing eco-friendly products is big name professional surfers who embody environmental responsibility and can be a face for their company’s campaign.  Reef has Rob Machado leading its “Redemption” program and Billabong has Rasta heading up its “Be the Change You Want in the World” campaign.  The support from these professional surfers gives concern for the environment a cool factor that did not previously exist for most young surfers. It is important, though, that these celebrity surfers are truly behind the movement and not simply reading a script their sponsors tell them to.  It does appear that most are genuinely interested in doing their part for the environment and are even pushing their sponsors to develop more eco-friendly products.  Green role models will greatly help the mainstream appeal of sustainable products.

Between snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing, the surfing market has the most clearly defined divide in consumers when it comes to environmental concern.  The classic, fairly accurate stereotypes consist of the patchouli oil-smelling hippie who has been wearing hemp since before my generation was born and my generation of surfers who drive gas guzzling black pickup trucks and couldn’t care less about the environment. This creates a problem for large, established brands looking to make greener products.  If they make a 100% organic cotton t-shirt that will cost slightly more, they will get the old hippies’ business but lose the younger generation not willing to pay extra for something they don’t care about.  However, if they make their entire line 30% organic cotton to lower prices and gain the young generation, they will sacrifice the business of the older eco-conscious generation that wants 100% organic.  Companies like Reef and Etnies have both made separate green shoe lines consisting of high percentage recycled and renewable materials.   Both lines did not do as well as expected and are being reconsidered.  The shoes cost more than the regular lines and did not sell well as a result.  The message that these companies took away is that the average consumer is simply not willing to pay extra for a greener product and that the niche market of people willing to pay extra is not large enough to sustain multiple companies’ lines of shoes.  Both of these companies are now starting to integrate green technology and materials into their entire products lines instead of having separate green product lines.

Frank Scura, head of the Action Sports Environmental Coalition (ASEC), believes that green products should be as green as possible and distinct from the rest of a company’s products.  Frank and the ASEC have directed brands looking to expand or start environmentally friendly product lines to manufacturers that are capable of meeting their needs.   They have also managed to bring rival companies together to collaborate on how the industry can become more sustainable as a whole.  Frank believes that green products should be physically separate from non-eco-friendly products in stores so that an environmentally conscious buyer can go straight to one section and easily find everything he needs.  These eco-friendly sections are called “Green Rooms.”  He believes that there is a large enough market for such rooms to thrive and support multiple companies’ 100% organic clothing lines.  I am not convinced by this proposition after hearing about the setbacks with Reef’s Redemption line and the Etnies Seed project.  Representatives from Reef, Sole Technology, and Quiksilver echo my sentiments and stress that integration into the entire product line is a smarter option at this time.  While everyone’s eventual goal is to have 100% organic and sustainable materials in every product in their line, it simply is not yet an option.  The market has not evolved to the point where every consumer is willing to pay extra for eco-friendly products, and the technology has not been developed to a point where green products will cost no more than today’s toxic products.  Unfortunately, this develops a kind of catch-22 in which consumers want eco-friendly products but are not willing to pay extra and the prices of those eco-friendly products will not drop until more consumers buy them because higher volume orders cost less.

Smaller companies like Comet and Wavetribe do not face this dilemma because they were built around the principal of environmental sustainability.  Their products may cost slightly more than comparable non-eco-friendly models, but their businesses are small enough to be sustained by the niche market that is willing to pay extra for sustainability.  While these companies are small and may not have the largest direct impact on the environment, because their products account for such a small share of the market, they have a large impact by pushing the large, well-established companies that account for the majority of the sales to keep up.  Since Comet Skateboards gained popularity for their biodegradable boards, other brands have been racing to keep up by using similar materials and manufacturing processes.  One mainstream brand even contracted Comet to build a large number of boards for their own eco line, rather than attempt to develop their own green construction method.  Derek D, the founder of Wavetribe, expressed anticipation for the year ahead, as he expects major players in the surfboard accessory (bags, leashes, traction pads, wax) industry to break into the green market.

“Greenwashing” is an issue related to bigger brands breaking into the eco-friendly market.  The term greenwashing has two separate, but linked meanings.  Firstly, companies change themselves and their image to become more popular in the new age of concerned customers.  False advertising is the second concern, misleading people to think that some product is more eco-friendly than it really is, or relying on false associations such as bamboo and green.  To many people, bamboo has become synonymous with green and eco-friendly.   Unfortunately, the bamboo used in these industries could be from natural forests that were clear cut, from artificial forests that were planted and replaced native species, grown using pesticides and fertilizers, or processed with large amounts of petro-based paints, glues, and varnishes.

Many people feel that greenwashing, by either definition, is not a bad thing at this stage.  Both have the effect of making eco-friendly products more prominent and boosting their desirability.  Eventually, though, greenwashing by the second definition will need to be eliminated by an eco-certification process to prevent false advertising.  Some core brands that were founded as environmentally friendly alternatives may perceive companies that are developing green lines in response to the demand for such products to not be “true” to the movement.  Regardless of the motive an organic cotton t-shirt is still an organic cotton t-shirt; it still has the same environmental effects.

One additional benefit of the shift towards environmentally friendly products is the positive effect on the health and well-being of those growing the raw materials and manufacturing the products.  Since organic products do not use pesticides or chemicals, the growers of these crops are no longer exposed to these dangerous sprays.  Similarly, factory workers are not exposed to as many toxic fumes or VOCs.  Companies promoting environmental responsibility might also realize that their corporate responsibility should include social responsibility as well.  Wavetribe, for instance, makes sure all the factories they contract with employ adult workers with reasonable working hours, working conditions, and pay.   Comet Skateboards produces domestically, employs local workers, and uses locally grown materials, further supporting their community’s economy.

This is just the beginning of the eco-friendly movement in the surf, skate, and snowboard industries.  The products, materials, and manufacturing processes will only evolve from here as consumers become more aware and demand more sustainable equipment.  All of the representatives that I talked to agree that the future of the actions sports industry, and all industries, lies in developing sustainable practices.  It will be exciting to see how different brands progress and what technologies will be discovered.  Will companies return to making separate 100% organic lines? Will all shops someday have “green rooms” as proposed by the ASEC?  Or will they integrate sustainable materials into their entire product lines and work from there to increase the percentages? Will small core brands like Wavetribe and Comet survive as major players enter the market? How will the issues of greenwashing and measuring sustainability be addressed? Will the average consumer wise up and realize that we cannot go on consuming as we do today?