Rebecka ThorstenssonAshleigh Downer

Fanny BissaReeta KattoReela Nigul

Billabong Today 1

Problem Statement 2

Our Idea 4

Timeline 5

Island sketches 6

Harvesting Hemp 9

The Roadmap 10

The C2C Surfboard 12

Identification of Stakeholders 13

Financing 14

Market Research 15

Conclusion 17

Sources 18

Appendix 19

Billabong is one of the leading surfbrands in the world, offering a wide range of products from boards to clothes. The surfer Gordon Merchant founded the company in 1973 with a focus on high quality products. In their code of conduct, Billabong states the importance of ecological issues and their openness towards environmental initiatives. They have several projects and co-operations concerning charity and nature, and they strive for continual improvement. There lies a commitment in the business to ethical and responsible practices that lead to positive social and environmental outcomes, and they have begun a new approach in communicating these actions to help increase the interest for their work. An example of a current project is the search for new solutions to reuse the toxic waste created from surfboard manufacturing. Financially it is a strong company as well, the sum of all revenues for year 2010 was 1 487 530 000 AUD which is about 1.120 million Euros.(Billabong Investors Home, 2010)

1.

Thousands of surfboards are broken every week. The “conventional” surfboards made of polyurethane, polyester resin, polystyrene and epoxy resin make a hazardous footprint in the environment. The toxic air- and water emissions, smog formation and worker exposure to harmful substances are other factors contributing to this problem. Over a surfboard’s entire lifetime it is the manufacture of the foam core and resin that make up the most of the carbon footprint (http://sustainablesurfcoalition.org/?page_id=29). The abundance of broken surfboards being chucked away generates additional toxic to the environment, if not recycled. No bigger surf brand has yet identified this problem nor tried to do something about it. (Sustainable Surfing Coalition 2011.)

2.

(http://sustainablesurfcoalition.org/?page_id=29) 3.

Our goal is to build a self-sufficient island from broken surfboards, providing hemp for the production of new Cradle to Cradle® surfboards. The Island will provide its own sustainable energy from solar panels and have its own fresh water through rain and a distillation process of seawater. It will produce organic hemp to be used in the manufacture of the new technology surfboards, based on land not far from the island.

Man made ‘Floating islands’ already exist with a total of 3100 of them around the world, however we wish to take this further by forming the Cradle to Cradle® making this a feasible and exciting idea for Billabong (Floating Islands West, 2010).

The vision is to collect the thousands of toxic surfboards thrown away that are damaging for the environment and use them in the process for making environmentally friendly Cradle to Cradle® products for Billabong. The toxic will not be released in the water, as the coating will keep the toxin from poisoning the water.

The process:

-The collected boards provide a buoyant base for the island. -Once this is established hemp will then be grown and harvested for the outer layer of the surfboards which is made through injection moulding.-The inner area of the new Cradle to Cradle® surfboards is made from Biofoam®, a Cradle to Cradle® certified material which can be reused once the product is no longer in use. -The new surfboards will be easily disassembled once they are broken

or discarded with the outer hemp layer going back to the island to biodegrade and fertilize the growing hemp. -The inner Biofoam® will be re-used for the next lot of surfboards. -There is no waste from the process and it produces a product of the same level making it a Cradle to Cradle® manufacturing process.

4.

5.

Bamboo and Broken board

- How it is joined

together

The island

6.

Island surface provides wildlife habitat

Island shade and roots provide cover and allow fish to thrive.

Root systems pull problematic nutrients out of the water through Hydroponics

Distillation

systems

The island

7.

Solar cells

Hemp is one of the most diverse plants on the planet, and could literally supply most of humankinds need for fuel, food, clothing, building products, and medicine. It’s able to grow in many areas of Australia. The fibre product of the hemp plant comes from the stalk, which is comprised of bast (the outer bark fraction of the stem) and the hurd (which is the inner woody core). The hemp fibre is ready to harvest about the time the plant is finished producing pollen and the first seeds start to develop. Because hemp is sensitive to light, early planting will produce taller crops and thus more fibre (Ecofibre, 2010).

Existing floating islands made from recycled bottles.

8.

The first initial stage is to raise awareness of the project and to inspire people and companies to donate their broken boards. This will be done through marketing of the idea through the website, social networking, posters, and on going negotiations with other companies. All advertisement of the project will be located on Billabong’s website and stores. The front page on the website will continuously provide news about the development of the project and also a link will be located there to navigate to the blog where news and pictures of the island will be downloaded daily. The website and the blog will also provide information about hemp growing and hemp board production. Billabong stores would provide flyers about the project to customers and every now and then display a small documentary about the island on screens inside the stores. Another good place for marketing would be the various surfing competitions Billabong organizes throughout the world. Advertisement on the beaches would happen through banners, screens etc. Also the Billabong sponsored athletes would carry the project logo on their clothes and boards. During the competitions Billabong could co-operate with a local (Australian) radio channel to have them advertise The Broken Board Island and vice versa.

We will also contact schools and apply an education program, which not only benefits the future of sustainable design through awareness, but also promotes the company to increase sales and interest. Educating people and especially children about environmental issues, sustainability and Cradle to Cradle® will be among one of the main goals during the project. During Billabong surf camps, arranged for children all over the world, children will get information about hemp surfboards and be taught to understand the cycle of a hemp plant becoming a board and after breaking going back to the hemp growing process. Also in the beginning a design competition will be launched in schools to encourage kids to design hemp boards. At the same time information about the island and hemp will be provided. After the island is established and the hemp growing has been stabled Billabong would co-operate with schools to arrange educational group visits to the island. These group visits could also be arranged among other people interested in the subject of Cradle to Cradle®, hemp surfboards or surfing in general.

We also wish to invite a group of volunteers to help with the making of the island along with a permanent work force. They will gain a unique experience as well as free accommodation and meals.

9.

1.

2.

3.

10.

4.

5. 6.

7.

11.

The Cradle to Cradle® surfboard consists out of 3 main components: The core, the skin and the resin.

Within a regular surfboard the core is the most toxic part of the board because of the fossil fuel based components. In our Cradle to Cradle® version the toxic foam is replaced by a sugar based polymer named PLA. The process of making PLA starts with sugar cane that is refined to sugar. Next step is to ferment the sugar to lactic acid. The lactide is finally polymerised to PLA. By influence of heat and steam the PLA expand into the Biofoam® which is the core component of the board. The skin is made of 100% hemp fibre that is naturally bleached. This product is therefore sustainable and completely toxic-free (Green Foam, 2011). The bioresin to laminate the board is a plant-based resin made of sunflower oil and other natural ingredients that are also toxically safe. (Synbra, 2010).

12.

The main stakeholder, Gordon Merchant, is also a non-executive director of Plantic Technologies Ltd., which is a company that engages in manufacture, and distribution of biodegradable packaging products. So there is a personal interest coming from the most influential person in the company. Other important stakeholders are Merchants´ business partners and surf industry veterans Joey Santley and Steve Cox. These two founded a company Green Foam Blanks where they make environmentally responsible surfboard blanks. The members of the audit committee are the non-executive directors of the company. To ensure that all stakeholders and the market are provided with accurate and relevant information about Billabong, the company communicates with the Australian Securities Exchange (Billabong Investors Home, 2010). Billabong has clientele all over the world from Australia, North America, South America, and Europe to Asia, the Middle East and Japan. Many of them are surfers or executers of other board sports like snowboarding.

13.

The Broken Board Island project implicates a large investment of the company. There is need of a fund to cover the collecting of the broken surfboards, the building of the island, the payment of the workers, the organisation of the voluntary camps and all the administration that goes together with the project. Moreover, it takes a few years before the hemp on the island will have the requested quality for the production of the boards. There is a possibility to cooperate with other companies like Green Foam Blanks and Resurf, both companies that are really aware of the importance of the environment when it comes to broken boards. These companies already made some attempts to make sustainable surfboards and to find answers to solve the large amount of waste that goes together with broken surfboards.

Because of the local feature of the project, there is a chance of receiving funding from the government. For the Australian society this project can be an investment in new job opportunities and it is also a chance to diminish the toxic waste of the surfboard industry, which is an important industry on the Australian island.

Moreover, the educational part of the project can be funded by schools and the government. Schools have budgets for fieldtrips and are an important key in creating a sustainable mentality among the students and in general among the population of Australia.

The main competitors of the company are the famous surf brands Quicksilver, O´Neill and Rip Curl. Together with Billabong they dominate more than 75% of the market. (Surfers today, 2011).

14.

We have performed a quantitative market research via Facebook. The boards seem to have a sentimental value to the surfers, hence keeping it as decoration or similar seems to be the first choice once they are broken. Therefore we cannot count wholly on regular surfers as the main suppliers of boards to the project, but also on professional surfers who change boards continuously because of their small (and therefore weak) boards and frequent surfing. Billabong’s own team riders consequently make a good source of broken surfboards. Surfboards manufacturers are other possible providers. However, since many of our respondents said that they would recycle their boards if they could and they knew it was for a good cause, there is obviously not enough information out there of how to do that, since recycling already exists. None of our respondents claimed to be recycling boards already. Therefore, an orientation on marketing the possibility of recycling for the cause of our project is an important step towards the completion of building The Broken Board Island.

Im really bad at recycling anyway. But I think

I would make an effort to recycle something

that means something to me. – Rich Wilder

The overall take on incentives for recycling is depending on what happens with the board during recycling. Since surfboards make an emotional value to their owners, it seems important that if they are not kept as decoration, they end up in a meaningful place. If we can then communicate the new purpose of their recycled boards, an incentive might not be required. According to our research the boards last between one and four years, depending on how much they surf. A majority of the respondents buy new boards at least every year. This tells us that most surfers have more than one board at a time.

15.

What we aimed to find out with the market research was to get a picture of the interest and possibility of collecting surfboards from surfers through our quantitative method. The answers gave a rather clear view, however, we only surveyed a selection of eight people, which is not enough to represent the total target population. But considering the tight schedule during the shaping of this idea, we find these respondents to be adequate for now. However, we recommend future research to perform a larger survey.

Visualized

Etnoraid

16.

There is an evident interest in surfing coming from the stakeholders. Sustainability is a part of the strong surfing lifestyle as nature is a surfer’s primary tool. Therefore we are opportunistic concerning the conviction of the stakeholders to invest in our project. Billabong is a sports brand with a focus on retaining and improving the environment. Their openness towards environmental initiatives and their already existing co-operations supporting charities acknowledges the compliance between our project and Billabong’s values and direction. The project will call for a big amount of initial funding, but as Billabong already spends large sums of money on charity projects, funding a project with a Cradle to Cradle® approach with future expected revenue seems like a good match with their values and resources. Billabong’s recent decision to start promoting their actions for a better environment is another reason to why our idea, as both a marketing tool and profit making project, is in line with their methods.

As no other major surf brand is on to a similar idea yet, we see that Billabong would gain an advantage over its competitors if realising this project. It is not just about adding a sustainable side to the supply chain, it is about actually creating a next to fully sustainable supply chain while producing Cradle to Cradle® surfboards.

The potential that we see in this project is the involvement of other actors than just Billabong, such as schools, government, surfers, volunteers from all over the world etc. It is an engaging project creating jobs, local production, Cradle to Cradle® surfboards, blooming eco-system etc. that will affect a whole lot of different people, hence causing an interest in our project.

17.

Billabong Investors Home, 2010. Corporate Overview. [online] Available at: <http://www.billabongbiz.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=154279&p=irol-irhome > [Accessed 7 July 2011].

Ecofibre, 2010. Industrial hemp – for a sustainable future. [online] Available at: <http://www.ecofibre.com.au/> [Accessed 7 July 2011].

Floating Islands West, 2010. Planting and launching instructions. [online] Available at: <http://www.floatingislandswest.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=64> [Accessed 7 July 2011].

Green Foam, 2011. Environmental Media Association Newsletter. [online] Available at: <http://www.greenfoamblog.com/> [Accessed 8 July 2011].

Surfers today, 2011. The timeless and iconic surf brands. [online] Available at: <http://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/4878-the-timeless-and-iconic-surf-brands> [Accessed 11 July 2011].

Sustainable Surfing Coalition, 2011. Surfboard Cradle-to-Grave. [online] Available at: <http://sustainablesurfcoalition.org/?page_id=29> [Accessed 8 July 2011].

Synbra, 2010. Synbra Technology bv, Home. [online] Available at: <http://www.synbratechnology.nl/index.php?page=en_main> [Accessed 7 July 2011].

Images:

Photo on page 1: http://surfmadam.com/en/uncategorized/sizable-challenge-billabong-ws-team/

Flow Diagram on page 3: http://sustainablesurfcoalition.org/?page_id=29

Photo on page 6 and 15: http://blog.fooyoh.com/samuraix/entry/Floating-Island-Made-From-Recycled-Plastic-Bottles?category=0

18.

Jo Deferm1) Give it away or use it as decoration! A lot of surfers will leave their old broken boards behind on trips for poor local surfers.

2) If possible maybe yes. If it’s still as good as it should be.

3) Don’t know.

4) Some boards, 3/4 every year.

5) Maybe 80.

6) Depends on the board and the waves. This year I broke 2 brand new boards and at the same time I’m still surfing a board 3 years old.

Eddie Jiang1) I don’t use my board until it’s too broken to use/repair.

2) Yes, if I would possess a board I couldn’t possibly use anymore and if there would be some surfboard-recycling-point.

3) Depends what happens with my recycled boards.

4) Once a year.

5) 100 sessions/year, on average.

6) One a year.

1) What do you do with your board when it is too broken to use or repair?2) Would you recycle your board?3) Would you need an incentive or would you recycle it for free?4) How often do you buy a new board?5) How many days a year do you surf, average?6) How long do your boards last?

- MARKET RESEARCH

QUESTIONNAIRE + ANSWERS

19.

Niels Vincke1) Decoration, use them to fix other surfboards.

2) If I could.

3) Maybe for a voucher.

4) Every year.

5) 3 months a year.

6) Average: 3 years.

Rich Wilder1) Usually with broken boards they end up on the wall or turned into garden benchs!

2) If you could recycle your old board I think I would make the effort. I think I would make an effort to recycle something that means something to me.

3) Incentives always help! But knowing that a broken board could be turned into new boards, that’s a good thing, so I would make an effort.

4) I usually buy a new board every season, but only because I am fortunate to get relatively cheap boards.

5) I try and surf as much as possible, around 100 days a year.

6) Most boards last a year, but on some occasions 2 years.

Mark Wheatley1) Rather sad, but I keep mine.

2) Definitely.

3) I would recycle it for free.

4) Once every two years.

5) About 50 days a year.

6) I’m tight and ride conservatively, so they last me 3-4 seasons.

20.

Rich Boston1) I’d probably keep it for the memories it has delivered!

2) Recycling could be an option if it was really battered.

3) It’d be nice to get something in return - wouldn’t have to be expensive!

4) Probably once every 2 years - unless I broke it and recycled it! ;)

5) About 15 - 20 days boarding per year.

6) I reckon about 4-5 years.

Tom Smith1) I tend to get new boards before I brake them and I have been donating them to friends who can’t afford new ones and don’t get them as easily as me.

2) I’d definitely recycle them, unless it had a lot of sentimental value. 3) An incentive would be nice but if someone loves something I don’t use anymore as much as I love my board then I’m a happy man.

4) I get a new board every season through being sponsored.

5) A full season.

6) My boards last a fair while. About 3 years.

Rob Cornish1) Mine end up as decoration around the house!

2) Yes I would recycle my board if I knew it would be beneficial, a lot of my boards have different memories attached with them.

3) I’m edging towards incentive, you’ll have to prize me away from it. Depends on the cause I guess.

4) I look to pick one up every 2 years, I don’t surf as often as I would want to so the board only takes a week/2 weeks pounding a year.

5) 2 weeks.

6) Hopefully make a board last a few years! or I’ll always be broke :/

21.

- MARKETING

WEBSITE IDEAS

22.