KROCHET KIDS

Hopefully you got your 2011 version of this Give Back Series - a selection of co-op tees, and then hand-crafted beanies made by the ladies of Krochet Kids, Uganda. What a great partnership this was and continues to be. We love the message and the whole crew there at KK. Keep your eyes peeled and you may be able to still find some of these products still out there.

Thanks to your purchases, we delivered a check for over $20,000 to their programs empowering women in Uganda. Watch this to learn more.

MOVEMBER

Remember when everyone around here was wearing a moustache!? Well, it paid off…not only did our in-house team, lead by our fearless leader, Richard Woolcott, raise almost $8,000 for the Movember campaign, but our Tilly’s x Movember exclusive tee raised $9,900 for men’s cancer research & health awareness! We had the boys from the Mo’ over right before the holidays to say thanks and award them with their check! Cheers!

Pipeline to a Cure

Surely you’re a Kid Creature fan! We sure are…when we teamed up with Cal (aka Kid Creature) for our Featured Artist Series, that was one thing, but when each of us discovered that the other had a Give Back component built into each others’ business, it was a hit! We immediately put the Kid Creature Featured Artist tees into our Give Back Series benefitting the Kid’s favorite organization – Pipeline to a Cure. As a part of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, these guys are raising tons of money for research that is close to finding a cure for this horrible respiratory disease. If you didn’t know already, you can learn more about how surfing helps ease the symptoms that patients affected with CF suffer from…Cal and the crew from CFF stopped by to pick up their checks from both of us. This was installment #1 of an ongoing Give Back…Stoked!

B4BC

For year’s now, we’ve been able to support the team at B4BC and the great work they’re doing to increase awareness about breast cancer, the importance of early detection and the value of an active lifestyle. This year, however, was a pretty good year! We offered a Pink is Punk tee, a range of tees exclusive to Tilly’s, and a great collection of outerwear and it all paid off…literally! For 2011 we were proud to be able to donate almost $13,000 to their cause! The girls from B4BC stopped by to grab their check and we exchanged season’s greetings – And then we saw Blair and her hubbie off to the Dinosaur Jr. w/Henry Rollins concert at the Samueli. Epic!

GJAC DIY WINNERS!

And lastly, there were the Give Jeans a Chance DIY winners! Two schools that did amazing work this year helping us to collect jeans for the homeless. Their students were engaged, committed and fired up to participate. In the end, we narrowed it down to two finalists, but only one could win the $1,500 grant we had for a non-profit of their choice…See the final blog entry here, but for now, congratulations to Red Hill Elementary in Tustin. Their principal, Mr. Nedderson rallied the troops and was stoked when Stone Man stopped by for a visit and check delivery!

That’s it for now…stay tuned for Give Back Series results in 2012!

Refill, Reuse, Repeat - Photo by Crystal Thornburg-Homcy

ALOHA FANS! We really hope you caught the final heat of the 2012 VPP, and hope even more that your heart survived the excitement! Mine was leaping out of my chest as we watched that final set reach the line-up in the last 30 seconds… with John John going deeper in a paddle battle with J.O.B. to catch a backdoor bomb.  Who thought he would even make the drop, much less pull off the best show of the entire contest? Maybe even the best show in Pipe Contest HISTORY!

And then, we took out the trash! With post-adrenaline heart palpitations, weak knees and perma-grim smiles, we dug in!

There's the Good, the Bad, AND the UGLY - Photo by Crystal Thornburg-Homcy

Dealing with the nasty bags of recycling, nastier bags of food containers, and even nastier buckets of food scraps, has never been so much fun!

During the finals, there are always more people buzzing about which inevitably means more waste. Our final day tally was 300 gallons of recycling, 18 gallons of food waste and another 120 gallons of compostables.  With a celebratory beer in one hand, waste to be diverted in the other, the overwhelming excitement combined with complete exhaustion left us with 3 truck loads or stuff to carry away… none of which will ever reach the landfill.

Mak'n It Easy - Photo by Crystal Thornburg-Homcy

I must admit that we could have done better; as I think we all can on any given day… BUT… that being said, we definitely did the best we could do in the moment.  Next year, we will be ready to communicate better, collect cleaner, divert more, reduce more, educate more, and waste LESS!  AND you can too!

Make an effort in your DAY-TO-DAY!  Get off SUPWB’s, say NO to Plastic Bags, grow some food, compost your waste, and carry your own chopsticks or utensils. Try to encourage your favorite place to eat good “grinds” to give up Styrofoam! Tell them you will pay more for healthy products! Bend over once in a while, and pick something up off the ground… so it does NOT wind up in the ocean.  And as the popular North Shore bumper sticker says…”SAVE SOMETHING!”

With my warmest ALOHA and thanks to VOLCOM, I leave you with two things….

1) Learn more about how to Live Like Sion and how to Live with Aloha: The legacy of Sion means to honor yourself, always be true, and do what you say you are going to do! Don’t talk about it, DO IT!

2) John Muir, in all of his wisdom, said this: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

Honor yourself every day, be true to others and look around you.  Take notice and get connected!

Send us your ideas and let us know what you are doing to make a difference on our TR3EES facebook page and we’ll see you next year for the 2013 Volcom Pipe Pro! Malama pono a hui hou (“take Care, until we meet again”)!

Back to the Earth - Photo by Crystal Thornburg-Homcy

No Place to Go - Photo by Crystal Thornburg-Homcy

Volcom HQ - Photo by Crystal Thornburg-Homcy

Monday, January 30^th was a lei day for the VPP which was perfect timing for the green efforts.  Sunday’s waste diversion efforts were in dire need of some attention before the North Shore mongoose population had a holiday feast on the compost that we collected for the farm. TR3EES had an amazing time on the land with farmer Anthony Palazzolo and his team of WWOOFers (World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farmers).  When we arrived there was a fresh, hot pile of coconut mulch, which happens to be some of the best material to compost with.  It is naturally anti-pathogenic and breaks down really fast with the right amount of moisture and self generated heat.

Preparing for Compost - - Photo by Crystal Thornburg-Homcy

After making a 10 x 6 foot bed, we emptied out food waste, watered it down, covered it up with more green waste and coconut mulch, and let it cook! In keeping with our high standards for green practices, we even washed and scrubbed our buckets with Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap (made from all organic plant oils) using a coconut husk as a scrubbie!  That’s seriously GREEN!

Once composted, all of the materials will be up-cycled into the soil providing rich nutritious elements that plants need to grow in good health.

Tuesday, January 31^st, we woke up to bombing surf!  It was so heavy that my windows were rumbling all night and we knew it was going to be an epic day!  We hit the ground running with some oatmeal and coffee served in Styrophobia sponsored compostable products made from plants, and got busy adding a second Zero Waste station inside the Volcom House.  Tai Van Dyke was really happy to help set it up to maximize Volcom’s efforts in Hawaii.

The Aftermath... - Photo by Crystal Thornburg-Homcy

At the end of one of the most exciting days in Pipe Contest history, we drove off with 220 gallons of plastic/aluminum/glass recycling, one half of a yard of cardboard, 100 gallons of compostable food service containers, and almost NO FOOD WASTE.  We had less than 1 gallon of food waste thanks to the amazing cooking of Thomas Naylor and his catering team.  Taro pancakes, the best local eggs you have ever tasted in your life, fish, spinach massed potatoes, and Cesar salads with chicken!  YUM! It was great to have nothing wasted!

Of course, Sambazon came through again and we dished out 150 acai bowls as the afternoon healthy energy lifter to the ASP and Volcom Crews and judges! Although, with the energy coming from the ocean today, I am pretty sure the details were blurred out by the best show on Earth! Macking PIPE! Click here if you didn’t get to see it.

We are looking forward to a bitter sweet final day where the 2012 VPP champ will emerge, and we will have to wait another year for the best surfing competition in Hawaii to return yet again…

To view all the photos (courtesy of © Crystal Thornburg-Homcy) from the last few days’ Zero Waste efforts, visit our New Future flickr site.

Catch a screening of Manufacturing Stoke on Friday, and then on Saturday join an impressive list of guest speakers and panelists from the Surf Industry, as the topic of Giving Back takes center stage. Should be a great weekend!

View the site and invitation here:

Day 2 of the Volcom Pipe Pro (VPP)was a beautiful day of pipe barrels and the sustainability efforts were in full swing.  Thanks to Volcom’s NO SINGLE USE PLASTIC WATER BOTTLE (S.U.P.w.B) Policy, recycling collections are still low with only 100 gallons being collected today.  We were also able to deliver 85 gallons of compostable plates, cups and utensils to a local farm (see Farmer Anthony below) where is will be processed and up-cycled into the soil.

Anthony Palazzolo - Farmer! Composter! Lover of the LAND! Appreciating the Waste Diversion Efforts...

Another 23 gallons of food waste was collected and will become part of a food fermentation process using effective microorganisms.  In about a month this will all be rich, healthy, nutritious soil used to enrich a diverse food farm on the North Shore.  Finally, thanks to Sambazon, we dished out 100 Acai Bowls as a mid-afternoon healthy energy lifter!  All the guys and groms were stoked! We can’t wait to do it all over again.

See more of the details & images here at the VPP site, and stay tuned for more updates.

Not familiar with our V.Co-logical Series? Learn a bit by watching this.

For now, check out these items and ask your local shop if they’re carrying our V.Co-logical Series, supporting 1% for the Planet and many environmentally-focused non-profits each season.

V.Co Lives Sweater

Rudi Custom Hoody - 65% Recycled Cotton/35% Poly

All V.Co-logical Girls Table

Even Stone Age is Down with V.Co-logical

All this was done with your help. You stopped at your local shop to drop off jeans and jackets to be donated to the homeless in your community. You rallied support and held drives to collect on your own. You told your friends, made posts about it and sent us in photos…now it’s time to rally a little support for our Give Back partner, National Coalition for the Homeless.

Now available, exclusively here at volcom.com , is this exclusive Give Jeans a Chance t-shirt, worn very nicely here by skate legend Mark Appleyard. When you buy this tee, you’re supporting a cause that continues to build community and supporting an organization that is doing amazing work for the homeless community across the nation.

So get yours while they’re still available!

Many of the 1.275 million Americans that are living with paralysis due to a spinal cord injury are youth between the ages of 18 and 30 and Life Rolls On is dedicated to improving their quality of life by utilizing surfing, skating and even snowboarding as a platform to inspire infinite possibilities despite paralysis. A portion of each sale of these Give Back items will go directly to Life Rolls On Foundation and the great work they are doing so go get some killer gear and help us support the great work that Life Rolls On Foundation is doing! Get ‘em here.

“Volcom’s corporate mantra, “Youth Against Establishment,” screams “I don’t give a f-ck” loud and clear. But all this rebellious noise muffles the reality that Volcom actually does give a f-ck, especially about other people and the environment.”

Read the entire piece here.

Looking forward to a great 2012!

With that said, I’d like to share a few services here at Volcom that we’ve installed here in the Kitchen Area Recycling Center (KARC) for our employees:

Styrofoam Recycling!

We’ve teamed up with Marko Foam to take any clean, packaging style Styrofoam. No food containers, just packaging waste. The styrofoam collected will go directly to Marko to be blown into new EPS surfboard blanks. My last 2 boards were shaped with Marko’s Envirofoam Core and I love them. Typically, Styrofoam is a difficult item to find recycling for, so this is a great service the Marko crew is providing. There’s a new bin in the recycling area.

Skateboard Recycling!

Got a new board for Christmas? Cleaning out the garage and have old boards that need a home…drop them off in the iRide, iRecycle bin. This is a program where the guys at Art of Board take old boards, turn them into building materials and creatively make furniture, and other interior decorating components. And, to boot, their Giving Back in a big way to the Tony Hawk Foundation and many more worthy skate related organizations.

These guys are awesome and they do some amazing work. Check them out here.

Gift Wrap!

Lastly, gift wrap. I hear many conflicting theories on this…it can be recycled, it can’t. It really just depends on what type of paper it is, and where you’re trying to recycle it. I’ve called the Orange Coast Recycling Center, and they are indeed taking holiday gift wrap for recycling. This is just a PSA (we’re not collecting gift wrap here on site), so please contact them directly, or just show up.

Happy Holidays, from all of us here at Volcom!