my 2 cents

heres a letter i wrote to Quiksilver and below that is their reply. pretty stoked with the guys reply , it seems pretty genuine.

From: warren Bain
To: Zqk; Ryan Ashton; Kathie Armstrong; Taylor Cotton; Quiksilver Foundation; accueil.standard@quiksilver-europe.com ; greg.swart@quiksilver.co.za
Sent: Sat Nov 21 04:38:21 2009
Subject: too hippy to be a punk too punk to be a hippy

Howdy

I just wanna start of by saying im not a hippy, i dont wear a sarong or beat a drum with neon paint on my forehead with hemp ankle bracelets on the beaches of Goa. What i am is a South African surfer and employee of Quiksilver, im currently working at the Aberdeen store in Scotland, I also used to work in the Flagship store in Sydney a couple years back while I was on a working holiday in Australia.

anyway im bummed, really bummmmmed. What I am bummed about is the fact that everyday that new stock comes into the store it arrives in boxes, which is ok but each individual product is wrapped up in so much plastic and paper, for example the flip flops (sandals,thongs,slops dependent on what country you come from), each pair comes in a plastic bag with a plastic string tie, then inside the bag each flip flop has a styrofoam type sponge wedged in where your toes would go, and similar packing methods apply to most Quiksilver products. In addition we often get whole boxes containing single items, so a 60cmx60cm box containing just one hat. My question here is do we need so much packaging for our items, and if so why not use recycled products to do this ?

Secondly once all the items are unpacked there is a huge amount of waste mainly plastic and paper. even though the plastic and paper is marked as recyclable we dont have any facilities to do this so it all goes into the trash along with our perishables like food etc destined for the same destiny of fulling up some landfill. I went around to all the shops in our centre and asked the manager of the centre about a recycling policy, he said they didnt have one, so does that mean we must just carry on with a blind eye?

Lastly the reason Im writing this is cause Im a surfer and I love the ocean and nature, and dont feel comfortable trying to sell someone the latest 'eco-circle' t-shirt and telling them its recycled etc when behind their backs we as a company are not recycling our own crap. Now Quiksilver is a huge company and I am just a part time sales assistant in a small store in the north east of Scotland, but im almost sure there are other stores around the world that feel the same way that I do.

I know Quiksilver does alot of good through supporting and funding various organisations, but i think a lot of upstream and downstream changes need to be made. It makes me uneasy when i see companies marketing themselves as green, when that is all that it is ..marketing. I hope im not working for one of them.

Regards

Warren Bain

Quiksilvers reply:

From:	Jeff Wilson (Jeff.Wilson@quiksilver.com)
	You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent:	30 November 2009 08:15:41 PM
To:	wazzabain@hotmail.com
Cc:	Maritxu Darrigrand (maritxu.darrigrand@quiksilver-europe.com); guillaume.colas@quiksilver-europe.com; carine.bedoya@quiksilver-europe.com; Ryan Ashton (Ryan.Ashton@quiksilver.com); Kathie Armstrong (Kathie.Armstrong@quiksilver.com)
	1 attachment image001.jpg (7.0 KB)

Hey warren…… ryan and kathie in the QS foundation here at headquarters forwarded me your email below from last week.

Totally respect where you’re coming from and understand your concerns and questions.

Let’s talk first about packaging: Absolutely, I think we can do better, and that will be a mission of mine as we head into the coming year. A group of sr. execs in may 2008 took apart about 15 different products as they are shipped out of here and it was very eye opening how much packaging, labeling, etc we do. However, that’s not to say some of it has usefulness from several standpoints. Without going into detail, what we need to look at is do we need the packaging at all? and if so, can we use less of it and can we substitute a sustainable product in place of what we’re using? It’s not going to change overnight, but I absolutely agree we can do better and I’m committed to figuring it out to make it better. I’m confident and optimistic about this piece of our environmental footprint, esp. the plastics part.

To the issue of quantity of items per box: I am not in a position to comment on that for the Europe region, but I know here in the Americas we can also do better on that. In the US, to the best of my knowledge, it’s tied to the order and how that order is processed at our warehouse… which is usually by division, which means product is pulled separately by division and shipped separately. I know here we’re working on improving that and shipping smarter based on the items to be shipped, but I believe we can do better. I’ve included Maritxu Darrigrand, guillaume colas, and carine bedoya out of the Europe region headquarters to add their comments in on this as well.

To the issue of recycling the cardboard, plastic, etc that you accumulate at the store: I know that can be somewhat complicated. Here in the US, recycling capabilities are a function of the local waste disposal company and it varies widely what they do. We’ve just begun a segregation process here at our headquarters buildings where all our recyclable materials are now separated from non-recyclables. This came about because our waste disposal company added the capability to do this recently. Again, hopefully Maritxu, guillaume, or carine can help you better understand this for your location.

In closing warren, I too am a lifelong surfer and absolutely relish my time in the ocean. Across the globe Quiksilver has over the years done very good work to help protect our planet. Maritxu, guillaume, and carine in Europe have accomplished some excellent things, and I encourage you to check out their recent publication “Quiksilver Sustainable Development Group”. I think you will be encouraged. I know the same is true for us in the Americas and for the group in Australia/Asia/Pacific. However, I think all of us know we can do even better and accomplish much more. I am committed to that in the coming years, and I’m confident all the Quiksilver staff working on sustainability for our company is equally committed. And I can assure you my objectives in the coming years are not about marketing. They are about making substantive, real improvements in our business to meaningfully reduce our environmental footprint.

Thanks for your email, warren. It’s great to know we have passionate employees who care about what we do and our impact on the planet.

All the best, jeff

RE: too hippy to be a punk too punk to be a hippy‏

From:	Jeff Wilson (Jeff.Wilson@quiksilver.com)
Sent:	30 November 2009 08:56:42 PM
To:	warren Bain (wazzabain@hotmail.com)
	1 attachment image001.jpg (7.0 KB)

Hi again warren….. was a pleasure. I very much care about this stuff, why I hounded our ceo to let me take control of it. just getting started, but I have a solid vision and plan. With the economic environment still somewhat fragile, will have to move carefully and somewhat slowly in the year ahead, but there’s actually quite a bit in all this sustainability work that can SAVE us money. It’s just getting that message across… perception is this stuff costs money. I’m confident in 2 years we will have made substantial progress in our facilities/properties footprint, our packaging, our materials sourcing, our manufacturing, and our transportation/distribution. Working together, collaborating with ideas, and committing to implementing change we will get there.

Thanks again for your questions and concerns, I genuinely mean that. keep em coming!

And same for a surf over here sometime warren… all the best, jeff