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We recently asked ourselves, as a fairly new organisation - how can we keep our environmental impact as low as possible? We often talk about buying less, but how about making less and starting a trend that enables us to want less. If nothing is made then nothing ends up in landfill sites, ensuring minimal negative impact on the natural environment.
Just recently, world leaders have drawn up an historic treaty to deal with the highly concerning quantity of plastic waste, while the latest IPCC report states that drastic action is needed as our Planet warms with a growing number of negative consequences. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) states that humans and nature are being pushed beyond their abilities to adapt. This is a long overdue wake-up call to the human inhabitants of Planet Earth. "Approximately 7bn of the estimated 9.2bn tonnes of plastics produced between 1950 and 2017 are now waste. About 75% of that waste is either deposited in landfills or accumulating in terrestrial and aquatic environments and ecosystems." (McVeigh K, 2022, link here) We hope that by doing our bit, this inspires others to do the same and to operate with minimal merchandise and material items. Each item that's produced typically comes with a hidden carbon footprint which is rarely talked about; the raw materials, the embodied energy to make the products, the social impact and labour involved, the transport (usually from overseas), the excessive packaging, the waste, the factory emissions, the planned obsolescence so you buy a new one very soon, the relaxed environmental regulations in its offshore manufacturing location, and the list goes on... Our pledge is simple, to make no material items whatsoever from Friday, 4th March 2022. Our sincere hope is that our actions will positively influence all individuals (not just surfers) and also impact other industries/sectors outside of the surfing world. We looked at our operations and came to the conclusion that our work at Wave Changer does not actually require any material items, so we will proudly use this pledge to guide us with any future decision making. We trust that you will consider doing the same. |
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