Volcom Pipe Pro 2013 – Months Later, Film Tells the Story

Posted on May 14, 2013 by dsabori

It’s been 3 months since we wrapped up the 2013 Volcom Pipe Pro, but here in the Sustainability Department, we’re still creating some buzz with the amazing film that was released last month by film maker Nathan Peracciny. The 24 minute film/mini-documentary, chronicled our journey while creating a second Deep Blue Surf Event with our partners at TR3EES and Sustainable Surf.

Each year, we’ve tried to add more to the behind the scenes of the event, ensuring that we’re leaving a positive impact on the North Shore and in Hawaii with the conclusion of each event.

We started with some simple repurposing and recycling, moved on to composting, and this year ran the event on biodiesel. We also offset the CO2 footprint of the event with a REDD+ certified carbon offset purchase supporting the PURUS Protection of Tropical Rainforest and Bio-diversity Project in Acre, Brazil.

We couldn’t have done this alone, and our hope is that the film that Nathan created (produced by Throw to Grow) helps tell the story of the team effort that goes into running a more sustainable surf event. Thanks too, to Surfline for picking up on this and helping to tell the story and promote the idea of running more and more surf events this way…I think this film is a challenge to all of us (that means us as well) to put this much thought and effort into everything we do – surf contests, products, retail stores…imagine the benefits.

Be sure to check out the film below, and if you get the chance, join the director/producer at any of the upcoming screenings he’s holding.

Posted in By Derek Sabori, New Future, Uncategorized, Volcom Pipe Pro | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Volcom 2013 Sustainability Update

Posted on April 11, 2013 by dsabori

The turn of the year brought in a lot of new things for us and amid the transition to a new CEO was a re-tooled Company Mission to include an increased focus on sustainability.

As you’ve read here, since 2006, we’ve offered a range of products under the V.Co-logical Series collection, contributing 1% of the sales to environmentally focused non-profits, thanks to our 1% for the Planet membership. These days, however, we’re digging deeper with a very specific strategy that is uncovering what it means to truly offer products and run a business who’s environmental impacts are lessened. It’s called an Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L).

An EP&L, as introduced first by our sister company PUMA in 2010 and committed to by Kering, our parent company, is a means of placing a monetary value on a company’s environmental impact along the entire supply chain of a select set of products. And as 2013 began, so did our first forays into our initial EP&L for our apparel products which will be a part of the Kering group EP&L to be published in 2016.

Supply chain scrutiny is one part of our comprehensive approach and included in our 3-year sustainability plan are additional goals to be reached by 2016:

  • Reducing our carbon emissions, waste and water usage by 25%
  • Ensuring there is no PVC in any of our collections
  • Sourcing paper and packaging items sustainably from recycled sources and/or certified well-managed forests
  • Increasing the amount of sustainable materials and processes in all our product mixes
  • Certifying major surf events as Deep Blue Surfing Events™ (Be sure to check out our Volcom Pipe Pro report here!)
  • Continuing Give Backs to community-based programs

There’s still so much work to be done, but we’ve spent a lot of time instilling our sustainability principles into the DNA of the company. The building blocks and the blueprint are there. Now it’s time to execute…

We were lucky enough to have these announcements covered by some great outlets, so for more details, with Q&A, check out the stories at both Shop-Eat-Surf and Transworld Business.

 

Posted in By Derek Sabori, Give Back Series, New Future, V.Co-logical | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Giving Music Life!

Posted on April 8, 2013 by dsabori

If you’re familiar at all with public school system, you’ll know that it’s not always a sure thing to have music as part of the curriculum. Thanks, however, to Fender Music Foundation, plenty of musical instruments are getting into the school music classrooms, after school programs and music therapy programs when needed.

The Fender Music Foundation is a music charity, who – like us – believe that music is an integral part of society and should be accessible to everyone! Because of this awesome belief and for the great work they’re doing in the community, the Volcom Give Back Series has partnered with them to raise awareness and funds for them. When you make a purchase, 5% of those sales go to supporting their cause of giving more and more people the opportunity to make music.

You can learn more about the Fender Music Foundation here, and you can shop for any of the available tees here at Volcom.com.

Posted in By Derek Sabori, Give Back Series, New Future | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

V.Co-logical for Sea Turtle Restoration Project

Posted on April 1, 2013 by dsabori

Just in time for building your Spring/Summer wardrobe are a few items that are Giving Back while looking good!

Our Girl’s team put together a great collection of items that are a part of our special V.Co-logical Series Marquee Partner program. Typically, our V.Co-logical Series gives back 1% of sales thanks to our 1% for the Planet partnership, but for this program we’re bumping up the donation and giving 5% back to the Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP) – a small, but mighty organization working to protect sea turtles — from tiny hatchlings to the gentle giant adult Pacific Leatherbacks — and their ocean home.

According to the STRP, sea turtles are in serious danger:

Sea turtles are ancient ocean dwellers that have lived on the Earth for 150 million years, since before the time of the dinosaurs. There are seven species of sea turtles: Green, Kemp’s ridley, Olive ridley, Hawksbill, Leatherback, Flatback and Loggerhead.

Now, all seven species of sea turtles are either critically endangered or threatened. Astonishingly, the population of leatherbacks has declined by 95% over just the past 25 years.

We ran a similar program in support of the Sumatran Orangutans last year and we were able to offer them some needed support. Join us in supporting these majestic creatures!

Shop all the available styles (Volcom Swim, Sandals, Tees, Etc,) here at Volcom.com and help spread the story of STRP here.

 

Posted in By Derek Sabori, Industry News, V.Co-logical | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Building a Sustainable Surf Contest – Volcom Pipe Pro 2013

Posted on March 7, 2013 by dsabori

Even though, the world class contest ended a month ago, the Volcom Pipe Pro is still on top of mind here in the Sustainability department. We’ve been busy wrapping up the Sustainability Report in conjunction with our partners at SustainableSurf.org and TR3EES and preparing to assess our overall impact and then offset it.

In addition to all the planning that goes into pulling off an event like this (the webcast, the forecast, the judging, the catering, etc., etc.), there’s much planning that goes into making sure that it is run as a sustainable event, minimizing the impact that the event has on the environment and on the community. We’ll be telling the story soon, but thankfully, our friend Nathan Peracciny and his media company were there to capture the story from start to finish.

This Sunday, you can join the filmaker and friends of the community at the premier of short, documenting our journey. Who knows, there might be a few giveaways there ;)

Posted in By Derek Sabori, Events, Industry News, New Future, Volcom Pipe Pro | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Our Buddy Kid Creature Is Down for Sharks!

Posted on February 13, 2013 by dsabori

And in fact, last month he went down to hang with our friends at PangeaSeed and some local Galapagos sharks in Hawaii…While we were busy managing waste and carbon during the Volcom Pipe Pro, Calvin, aka Kid Creature, was getting busy raising awareness for another environmental concern, the danger that sharks are in, all across the world. Check out the footage and the story here.

 

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Volcom Pipe Pro – New Future Updates From the North Shore

Posted on February 2, 2013 by dsabori

Collecting EPS aka styrofoam at Tropical Rush, Haleiwa

Hopefully you’ve been tuned into the 2013 Volcom Pipe Pro - after 4 straight “lei” days, the contest was on in great Pipeline surf. In addition to the world class waves and surfing, we’re striving for an ‘A’ when it comes to sustainable surf event management. While you can learn about all the initiatives that are in place here, one of the exciting ones is our partnership with SustainableSurf.org and their Waste to Waves Program.

In fact, we just got news from the team there on the North Shore that the first Waste to Waves collection bin (collecting EPS aka ‘styrofoam’ to be recycled) at our North Shore HQ store, Tropical Rush is full and ready to be turned into surfboard blanks! Check out the story from them:

Waste to Waves Turns Styrofoam Into Surfboards    

Wait a minute… didn’t you know that styrofoam is the same foam inside an EPS surfboard?  Now, you can give your styrofoam packaging a new life as a surfboard with Waste to Waves. You can also help keep styrofoam out of landfills and oceans.

Tropical Rush, a surf shop in Haleiwa, is the first Hawaiian drop-off location for Waste to Waves, which collected over 40,000 lbs of styrofoam in California last year.

If you have waste styrofoam packaging material (aka. Polystyrene foam or EPS), bring it to Tropical Rush.  It will then be taken for recycling by Surfrider Hawaii volunteers and dedicated North Shore shapers like Kevin Seid of Everpaddle. Only clean, white EPS packaging material can be recycled. No food containers or packing peanuts, please.

Mikala Jone's board shaped from recycled EPS by Glenn Pang of T&C

There’s one more thing you should do. The next time you order a custom surfboard, tell your shaper you want it made from recycled EPS.  Recycled EPS surfboard blanks are now available in Hawaii from Marko Foam and Pacific Allied Products. Pro surfers like Mikala Jones, Torrey Meister, and Dylan Goodale have surfboards made from recycled EPS, and they love how the boards surf.

Waste to Waves is a program by Sustainable Surf. You can learn more about it at: http://www.wastetowaves.org

Posted in By Derek Sabori, Events, Industry News, New Future, Volcom Pipe Pro | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Volcom Pipe Pro – Another Deep Blue Surfing Event!

Posted on January 30, 2013 by dsabori

Hey Friends! I know, I know…it’s been a while. Sorry for going dark, but man we’ve been busy over here! Enough of that though – it’s Volcom Pipe Pro time!

Each year, we’ve strived to improve upon the previous when it comes to how the environmental footprint of the event is managed. Recall last year’s Zero Waste efforts and the great posts from TR3EES? Well, we’re at it again and this year there’s even more in the pipes (sorry, no pun intended)!

Learning from our experiences with Sustainable Surf at last year’s Volcom Fiji Pro, we sticking to the suggested guidelines in order to run this too as a Deep Blue Surfing Event™. All the details are at the New Future section on the Volcom Pipe Pro website, and we’ll be sending updates from the field, but for now we’ll see you for Round 1 of competition!

Oh, by the way, here’s a teaser of everyone we’re working with for our New Future program:

 

Posted in By Derek Sabori, Events, New Future, Volcom Pipe Pro | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hitch a Ride, Make a Friend, Reduce Your Emissions!

Posted on December 19, 2012 by dsabori

Not a bad concept, right? Well our friends in Europe are catching on quick with a concept called go-shred. If you haven’t heard of it, according to their founder:

“go-shred is a way to experience new aspects of snowboarding – a portal where environmental consciousness and dedication to snowboarding come together. Where snowboarders of all ages have a platform to meet and where different views of snowboarding and living share a common ground.

go-shred.com basically is an internet portal for sharing rides to mountain resorts – through our constantly growing community and staff it becomes way more than that. We keep you guys connected with our web presence as well as snowboard events we hold in favored resorts around the Alps. go-shred is about creating a unique and personal place for the people that share the same passion.

Carpooling is a most sustainable and economic way to get to the mountain. Just think back of how often you drive in your car alone and how much money and emissions you could have saved through sharing your ride and your expenses. We want to spread the consciousness that helps car sharing become more popular, so talk with your friends about using go-shred.

Friends don’t let friends go-shred alone!

This month, Volcom Europe has teamed up go-shred to offer you an incentive to get in the game! If you’re in the Kitzsteinhorn area, check it out!

 Check out the go-shred facebook page for more info.

Anyone know of anything like this here in the states? We’re liking it…

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Holiday Gift Drive!

Posted on December 14, 2012 by dsabori

Big thanks to all our employees who were able to contribute! We just shipped off 3 boxes of toys and gifts to Long Island Cares in the hopes that they’ll end up in the hands of families affected by Superstorm Sandy. Friends and family over there are still on our minds as we close in on the Holidays…

Posted in By Derek Sabori, Embrace Recovery | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment