A polystyrene core, covered with glass fibre, PVC and carbon fibre, glued together with epoxy resin: that was a windsurfing board 30 years ago. Today, windsurfing and windsurfing boards still look the same. Has nothing at all changed in the area of board development and production? And is surfing, a sport that is ostensibly so close to nature, missing out on the global trend towards greater sustainability?
During the Surf festivals on Fehmarn with Thomas Davies, who is also responsible for sustainability in product management at the Thai board manufacturer Cobra.
Thomas, if you compare a windsurfing board from the 80s with a wing or windsurfing board from today, you might think that time has stood still, right?
It may look that way, but on closer inspection, a lot is happening in this area. First of all, you have to understand that a product can become more sustainable in different ways: in terms of the design, i.e. the raw materials used. Then in terms of the production process - i.e. the question of whether, for example, the same product can be manufactured using fewer resources. And, of course, you also have to consider the social component, i.e. clarifying the conditions under which our employees should manufacture the products and how salaries, health and safety at work develop.
The step towards more sustainability: does it have to come from the brands? Or from the producer?
It has to come from both sides. As a producer, you have to make concrete offers; some things can only be changed by the producer themselves anyway. When it comes to working conditions in our factory, wages or recycling. However, many good ideas also come from the manufacturers.
Every wind sports enthusiast knows that almost all boards produced worldwide come from Cobra. But what happens behind the factory gates is a well-kept secret. Under what conditions are boards manufactured today?
Cobra had a difficult time during the coronavirus pandemic due to the lockdowns and the disruption to supply chains. Nevertheless, we tried to absorb it over four-day weeks and didn't make any people redundant. We were actually able to keep most of our employees, but not all of them. We are currently growing significantly again and currently have just under 3,000 employees. For some time now, all employees have been paid more than the statutory minimum wage in Thailand, which is part of our philosophy. We are also involved in funding scholarships for employees' families and our surrounding community. I think we are a good employer and many of our employees have been with us for a long time - which in turn helps to ensure quality. Especially against the backdrop of rising prices, you have to realise that windsurf boards are predominantly handmade. We have always used more technology. But it's not the case that robots do the work in board production and a finished board comes out of a machine at the end.
If you look at the product itself, you might think that board production is stuck in the 80s in terms of sustainability. What specific adjustments can be made to make a board "greener"?
One simple way, for example, is offsetting. In other words, the financing of compensatory measures that offset the negative effects of production.
You could almost say indulgence trade. The product itself remains dirty, but is washed clean for a clear conscience...
Of course, offsetting is not the solution to the problem. But it is part of the solution. At Cobra, we have started a project to plant mangroves that will bind large amounts of CO2 over time. Of course, such measures alone are not enough, but are only a small part of the puzzle. Many customers have also had their own offsetting programmes in place for many years to offset the carbon footprint of their products and supply chains.
What would be the next steps in relation to the product?
It starts with the choice of raw materials. Do you continue to use glass fibre or carbon? Or can you switch to natural raw materials such as flax or bamboo? However, sustainability does not mean simply replacing fibreglass with flax. If the board only lasts half as long afterwards, the ecological footprint may even be larger. So you have to check exactly where it makes sense to replace raw materials - and consider the entire life cycle.
Sustainability is never a simple solution. It is not enough to replace individual components, you have to look at the entire life cycle of a board.
Are materials such as flax, hemp or bamboo increasingly being used?
To be honest, the actual product, the board, still has a long way to go. The problem is that we are talking about fibre composite technology, which means that several materials are combined into one product. Of course, you can now use flax instead of glass fibre, which has wonderful properties, can be grown sustainably, is biodegradable and stable. However, the moment you bind flax in epoxy resin, you can no longer insulate it afterwards and throw it on the compost heap somewhere in the garden because it is soaked in non-degradable resin. Nevertheless, there are projects that make sense and are working on solutions: For example, we have done a recycling project in cooperation with a large customer, who is also located in Thailand, and a fin manufacturer, in which an epoxy resin was developed that can be dissolved afterwards. The components obtained are of a very high quality; a thermoplastic is obtained from the old resin, which can be used to make footstrap plugs and other small parts. We are currently trying to scale up these things, which already work on a small scale, and make them on a large scale. But there is still a lot of investment and research to be done before we reach our goal.
The polystyrene core is still likely to cause the most waste, isn't it? Are there any ideas for switching to other materials?
There are ideas for obtaining core material from balsa wood. Balsa is used on a large scale in wind turbine construction. The material from disused turbines is to be used in future by converting the recycled balsa wood into a foamed core material. A core made from recycled PET material is also being considered, but the resulting core material is still twice as heavy as polystyrene - so there is still work to be done. There is also the possibility of mixing in additives that support the degradation of foams.
There are wonderful, biodegradable materials such as flax or hemp. The problem arises as soon as these are bonded with non-biodegradable resin.
To what extent do you orientate your work towards other, larger industries?
Cobra has been around for over 40 years, and of course we are very well networked with other industries. Recycling is an important topic in other sectors such as the automotive and aviation industries. Of course, the budgets for research projects here are not comparable to those in the surfing industry. That's why we try to use our strong links with these industries, including through our subsidiary CAC, to adopt new processes for our production.
What about your production? How can you make it more sustainable?
A lot of positive things have happened here in recent years. Things that you don't immediately realise as an outsider, of course. Electricity is a massive issue in the fibre composite industry. We have reduced electricity consumption per board by more than 20 per cent compared to 2018. A one-megawatt solar power system is currently being installed on the factory premises; the electricity supplier in Thailand does not currently permit more than this - but we are working on changing this. We have been able to reduce our water consumption by almost half in the last five years. We have also been able to massively minimise the amount of waste we produce; we now recycle 100 per cent of our polystyrene waste, most of which will be recycled directly at our factory in the future. We have also been able to greatly optimise the use of fibre materials. Leftover glass fibre is used for the production of fins, which reduces the amount of waste. These processes have to be actively encouraged, but they are working better and better.
Prices for boards have risen significantly in recent years. Will these measures also have an impact on the shop counter in terms of greater sustainability?
In recent years, the cost of all products has risen. Windsurfing and wingboards are no different. Sustainability naturally has an impact, especially in terms of labour wages. But sustainable raw materials are also currently still significantly more expensive than traditional, petroleum-based options. Of course, this also means that more sustainable products are currently more expensive for the end customer. But the technology is developing very quickly and I hope that the costs will soon no longer be so different.
There are already brands in the surfing business that seem to be a few steps further along the road to the "green" board. Why do you think that is?
Surfing and wingsurfing are not directly comparable. A surfboard doesn't need footstraps or a foil box, the construction is much simpler. Nevertheless, I believe that wingsurf boards will also become significantly more ecological in the next few years. Whether these will be boards made from recycled materials - or ones that are made from natural raw materials from the outset - is not yet foreseeable. However, it is always important to guarantee that durability does not suffer. After all, a board that is broken after a year can never be sustainable. In terms of durability, brands are sometimes simply surprised by the development of a sport. A current example is wingfoiling. When the boards were developed for this sport, everyone was still cruising back and forth comfortably in light winds. A year later, people were jumping metres high through the air, requiring a completely different board design, the implementation of which is perhaps not progressing as quickly as the sport itself.
Some boards are already emblazoned with stickers like "ocean minded" or "made with organic resin". Is this greenwashing? Or are brands driving the genuine development of sustainable products on their own initiative?
There are many brands that are actively demanding and promoting this development. Whether through offsetting to offset the CO2 footprint of the boards as a first step. Or through product design by using more sustainable materials. Every brand is focussing on this issue. When we offered to pack all boards in cardboard boxes instead of plastic from now on, everyone was immediately on board. These are many small steps on a long journey that we will take together.
