That is according to Surfdome’s head of sustainability Adam Hall, who discussed the latest corporate efforts to tackle the plastic scourge during the most recent episode of edie’s Sustainable Business Covered podcast.
Hall explained that, as dozens of retailers move to ban single-use plastic products and packaging within their operations, they put themselves at risk of greenwashing by investing in solutions which have environmental repercussions that are equally as negative.
“There are certainly fastly evolving ‘dos and don’ts’ and it is becoming clearer and clearer, month by month, what we should and shouldn’t do ,” Hall said.
“There are some glaringly obvious and mismarketed solutions out there that businesses are unwittingly falling into the trap of. We have to have that greenwashing radar on and be careful as to whether businesses are using just to jump on the bandwagon.”
London-based Surfdome acts as an online retail distribution business, making more than 2.5 million deliveries of surf, snow, skate and outdoor apparel to customers each year. In a drive to reduce its single-use plastic output, the company committed in 2015 to an ongoing target of replacing 100% of the polyethene wrapping used to package its items for delivery with biodegradable cardboard alternatives.
Adam Hall at Responsible Retail 2018
Surfdome’s Adam Hall is one of the expert speakers who will be appearing on stage at Responsible Retail 2018 – edie’s unique event which inspires retailers and their stakeholders to realise the potential of environmentally and socially-conscious business models.
This full-day event will take place in London on 20 September 2018. Find out more and register to attend here.
As of 2017, Surfdome was 74% of the way towards this goal. By that time, the plastic-to-cardboard switch had eliminated the equivalent plastic of 1.2 million bottles. With the embodied carbon of cardboard less than half that of plastic, the project has also led to significant emissions savings, which are yet to be fully calculated.
Hall cited the switch to Oxo-degradable plastics (ODPs) as a common “pitfall”, claiming that the solution was “mismarketed”. ODPs are often marketed as biodegradable, but in reality, break down into microplastics – small pieces of plastic that can pass through water filtration systems into the marine environment.
Indeed, the European Commission is currently facing calls for a bloc-wide ban on ODPs by 2020, while the EU Parliament is facing calls for term “biodegradable” to be banned in relation to the technology.
Nonetheless, Hall concluded that any business action on plastics would serve to spur progress by not only furthering cross-sector discussions surrounding the issue, but by enabling companies to learn from their mistakes and make more holistically sustainable decisions on resource management in the future.
“Sometimes you have objectors who come back with the argument that if you are not 100% perfect, you shouldn’t do it,” he said. “That’s where we get stagnation and that’s where progress isn’t made.”
“There’s a bigger threat from us not doing anything and, on that journey from not being 100% perfect, we will find 100% perfect.”
Surfing and sustainability
Surfdome’s plastic phase-out cost £900 in the first year, as cardboard is 110% more expensive than its plastic counterpart. Hall previously told edie that he achieved senior-level support for the switch by implementing efficiency measures elsewhere, such as cutting packaging tape to exact lengths, swapping bubble wrap for recycled paper, and using refillable printer ink cartridges. The cost savings generated from these moves were then ring-fenced and set aside for the purchase of cardboard packaging.
During the podcast, Hall explained that support for the switch came from a senior level and had “trickled down” the business over the past three years.
Hall added that by focusing on the plastic issue – an area in which the company was able to provide some “big-hitting, high-impact environmental wins” within a short timescale – Surfdome was able to generate the boardroom and consumer support it needed to begin work on longer-term sustainability projects.
We’ve been on a pretty important mission at Surfdome, to dramatically reduce plastic from our business! Here’s how https://t.co/b4sKy05Tm8 pic.twitter.com/ylqKN2wJTe
— Surfdome (@Surfdome) August 7, 2017
Sustainable Business Covered
The edie editorial team brings you the latest news, insights and inspiration from the world of sustainable business in each episode of edie’s Sustainable Business Covered podcast.
There are 46 episodes across a range of topics to choose from, but the most recent edition sees edie travel to London to speak with Kingfisher’s head of sustainability Caroline Laurie and HP’s global director of sustainability operations Kirstie McIntyre to discuss how sustainability has continually evolved within both organisations, to the point where it has become business-critical.
You can listen to that episode, and browse a list of all the other editions so far, by clicking here.
Sarah George