"Surf's up, waste's down ", review on article published in "The New York Times " (November 18, 2009)

Résumé du document

Green commitment is definitely today's hot trend in business. This phenomenon seems to involve more and more fields. For example, the surfboard manufacturing industry, which is very profitable, and has a sizeable market, is one of the new fields involved in recycling. Despite the eco-friendly image of the surfing community, this industry generates a lot of toxic wastes. The success of the small company Green Foam Blanks, which uses old surfboards to shape new ones, is a proof of the potential of environmental care in business today. Its founders have succeeded in remaining competitive with respect to their prices, and to their board's quality.

Extraits

[...] "Surf's up, waste's down", article publié dans "The New York Times" (18 novembre 2009) Published November The New York Times A few blocks from the beach, the pungent smell of polyester resin wafts from the surfboard factories that crowd an alley known as the surf ghetto in this Southern California town. Inside warrens of rooms painted ocean blue, young men wearing face masks shape slabs of snow-white polyurethane foam into surfboards, the cast-off chemical dust covering floors and filling trash barrels. [...]

[...] Step by step, green initiatives are getting more and more significant in the current economic life. In fact, investing in green project is for many firms an alternative to the economic gloom; it is almost the only field which is not affected by the crisis. Major part of the largest companies in the world is adopting environmentally friendly business practices: from new technologies to surfboards manufacturing, a large range of companies chose the green commitment as a leitmotiv, and even tycoons as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet invest huge amounts of money in sustainability. [...]

[...] The down side is that Green Foam produces a higher rate of defective blanks, he said, a problem Mr. Santley acknowledged. Commentary Green commitment is definitely today's hot trend in business. This phenomenon seems to involve more and more fields. For example, the surfboard manufacturing industry, which is very profitable, and a sizeable market, is one of the new fields involved in recycling. Actually, despite the eco-friendly image of the surfing community, this industry generates a lot of toxic wastes. [...]

[...] It is an approach born of necessity Mr. Santley and Mr. Cox are financing Green Foam themselves and the idiosyncratic nature of the surfboard industry. Surfing is still largely a tribal affair, and outsiders and new ways are often viewed with suspicion. Idiosyncratic: particulier really love that you can take old surfboards, grind them up and make more surfboards instead of sticking them in landfills,” said Donavon Frankenreiter, a pro surfer turned musician who owns Green Foam surfboards. “They ride great and look cool. [...]

[...] In the future, I suppose their idea may have a great success, indeed, the fact that celebrities as Donavon Frankenreiter or Cameron Diaz use their boards shows how sustainable practices are trendy. Once again, entrepreneurs show that profit is not incompatible with an ethical behavior. Although septic journalists wonder if the green business trend is heartfelt on behalf of the investors, it is in my opinion a real hope. Indeed, thanks to these investments, and to governments' incitement measures, environmental concern is going to be in the near future a fundamental item of our everyday life. [...]