Is Patagonia the standard? When they weren’t even born of the surf industry? Photo: Patagonia
Walking my dog on a sunny winter day in northern California recently, I listened to a surf podcast that stopped me in my tracks.
“What surf product is sustainable?” Patagonia’s Gabe Davies asked the podcast host Sunny Fassler. “There is not one,” he responded to his own question. “The only way to be sustainable is you don’t make any products. The most sustainable product is the one you’ve already got.”
As someone who is vegan, (usually) buys the organic bananas at Trader Joe’s, and orders the embarrassingly overpriced shampoo bars online sans plastic, it made me ponder. As surfers, what is our true impact on the environment? Does it offset all the “good” we do? Would the planet be better off without surfing?
The topic of sustainability in surfing, or in general, is a tricky one. It’s sticky, convoluted, and multilayered – a topic that Fassler takes head on in the latest episode of Duct Tape Theory (below). Fassler gathers four key players in the field to discuss the matter – Finisterre founder Tom Kay, Billabong Europe’s general manager Simon Charlesworth, sustainability strategist Adam Hall, and Patagonia Europe’s ocean marketing manager Gabe Davies.
I had four main takeaways. How far behind surfing is from the outdoor industry in terms of sustainability, how “green hushing” scares brands away from green initiatives, Billabong’s exclusive access to a rubber farm in Guatemala, and the blunt statement made by Hall that no surf product is sustainable. I gave Fassler a call to discuss and hear about what he learned as well.
Adam Hall and Gabe Davies made statements that the surf industry is miles behind the outdoor industry as far as sustainability. Hall said, “Even some of the outdoor brands that are not particularly sustainable are leagues ahead of some of the surf brands.” Was that something that surprised you?
What I have to say before we start is that I learned so much doing this work, getting into it, asking the right questions, connecting with the right people. There’s so much more to sustainability than what we actually see, especially when you’re not really immersed in this. You only see the marketing ploy, what brands are telling you about sustainability, but there’s so much more. So, for me, yes, it was surprising. But at the same time, after talking to Gabe, talking to Adam, it was clear because, if you think about it, for us in the surf industry, Patagonia is the gold standard. But Patagonia isn’t really a surf brand. It started out as an outdoor brand and now they have a surf division, but that’s not really their core essence.
I had never heard the term ‘green hushing’ before, but Adam Hall said it is a real problem. Brands are hesitant to jump into sustainability projects because they’re afraid of being labeled ‘green washers.’ Have you heard of this before?
It’s funny, when you sent me this stuff, I was thinking, I don’t know what green hushing actually is. Everybody kind of knows the term greenwashing and I think, to some degree, we all understand it. But then I went back to talk to Adam (Hall). I asked, “Hey, actually what is green hushing? What do you guys mean by that?” But it does make sense. Sustainability is something that’s really trendy at the moment and a topic that divides a lot of people. People get really passionate and opinionated about it. It’s really easy to call somebody out online. And if you go through comments, it doesn’t matter where it is, even with brands like Patagonia or Finisterre, they get called out all the time. I think that’s the danger of green hushing. There are a lot of brands actually trying to do the right thing. And that was something that was surprising, especially when I talked to Simon from Billabong about it. He basically said that, it’s not that we don’t want to, don’t really want to change, or want to keep things the same. It’s not that we don’t have a lot of people who want to drive the sustainability thing forward, but in big brands like that, it just takes forever to do it. So even if you have a step by step approach, you get called out for things that you’re actually doing and trying to change. But that’s the pace that you can go. For me, that was really interesting.
There’s a big spectrum of sustainability initiatives. Where do you think the line of greenwashing is on that spectrum? When are you doing enough or not enough?
I think that’s the million dollar question. What I found really interesting doing this is, especially when I talked to Gabe (Patagonia) and Tom (Finisterre), both of them said very early that they don’t like to use the term ‘sustainability.’ Sustainability is so overused. There are a lot of intangibles with it. Nobody really knows what it is, where it starts, and where it ends. Tom actually said they cut it out completely from their communications because it doesn’t really mean anything. What they like to use, though, is ‘responsibility.’ I think it’s a step up from sustainability. Just be a responsible business rather than a sustainable business.
Will every brand eventually need to own a farm like this one in Guatemala? Photo: Billabong
Simon from Billabong talks about a rubber farm that they have exclusive rights to in Guatemala to produce their ‘Organiprene’ product. He called it the brand’s “biggest breakthrough in innovation.” Do you think that’s something other companies can replicate, and maybe one day, something they’ll be forced to do if it becomes the norm?
Yes. But at the same time, I’m sure it’s expensive. I saw Simon today. We had a meeting and I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to add, like why Billabong invested in this rubber farm. He said that they felt that the end consumer shouldn’t pay a premium for sustainability. So yes, brands can do it. But I don’t know if an independent, sort of garage label can actually do it. I think it needs some financial muscle. And if it pressures brands into doing it as well, or changing things, I think it does. I think that’s actually already happening. It goes back to sustainability being a really trendy thing right now. In the beginning, you got away with just claiming it or having really weak initiatives around sustainability. But I do think with these greenwashing laws that are coming out in Europe, or just awareness in general, it creates pressure for other brands to realize that the marketing ploy is done and they really have to do the right thing, or at least try.
Are wetsuits killing our planet. Finisterre and other brands are trying to make sure that’s a falsehood.
When Adam said that no product is sustainable, and Gabe also mentioned that the most sustainable product is the one you already have, do you agree? And second, how do surfers come to grips with the fact that the sport that we love harms the environment?
I think as a collective, we’re hypocrites. We all look at surfing as so pure. It’s you in the water, whatever romantic shape you want to use to justify this sport and how great it is, how we are in tune with nature. But it’s not true. The two essential things we need to surf are so bad for the planet: boards and wetsuits. That in itself is already a contradiction. I think we just have to suck it up. It is what it is. We have to stop creating, or trying to create, this really romantic picture around what surfing is and how good it is for us and for the planet because it’s just like anything else. It’s not worse or better than American football, or Formula One – ok maybe it’s better than Formula One. There are alternatives out there to make it just a little bit better for everybody, for the planet, for us.
I really like Gabe’s statement where he said the most sustainable product is the one you already have. It’s true. I look to my right, and there are seven boards. Do I need seven boards? No, I don’t need seven boards. You could probably get away with one, maybe two boards, but we live in this society where we love to consume. And again, you can probably pick any sport, and see that it’s not really sustainable. But we can do the sports we love or the things we love with a little bit more responsibility.
Those were my main takeaways, but after you finished the project, what were yours?
I think I already said it. I was really surprised after I talked to Simon how these big brands get a lot of crap for supposedly not doing the right thing or not caring about the environment, just caring about the money, the bottom line, whatever. But it’s not true. There are a lot of great people with a lot of talent within these companies that are actually trying hard and it just takes a while. Like Simon said, good things take time. That was one of my main takeaways and then the second one was how the term sustainability is so overused and overhyped. It doesn’t actually mean anything. What is sustainable? I really liked that Patagonia and Finisterre say that sustainability is cool and all, but they’re way more interested in doing the right thing, being responsible about the things they’re doing.
