Samuel Clement
Prof. Williams
Ethics and the Environment
December 2, 2013
PAEP Individual Reflection
Burton started
from humble beginnings in Londonderry Vermont, in 1977, where the then 23 Jake
Burton Carpenter began making simple snowboards inspired by Sherman Poppen’s
Snurfer. Over the last 46 years his one man company as grown into a massive
corporation. Burton snowboards has become
the undisputed leader of the Snowboard industry, the beginning of the modern
snowboard industry, with several smaller company like analog clothing or gravis
footwear. Burton has also recently acquired a surfboard company. It is safe to
say that in the world of snowboarding Burton is king.
Burton has come a long way from it simple wooden boards and
now uses some very high-tech materials and equipment. Also we tour the Craig
Kelly prototype lab, so the majority of the boards we saw were there next
year’s production models or prototypes, Because of this we were not allowed to
take any pictures inside the factory. Examples of technology embraced by Burton is
their SLS machine capable of creating hard binding parts overnight, and a 3D
printer that can make rubber products in less than 12 hours. Burton is also
dedicated to proving their new Technologies won’t fail consumers, they have a
“torture chamber” were engineers test products for durability. They go far
beyond things that could actually happen, while we were there we saw them bend
a snowboard past 90 degrees until it broke. This commitment to quality we hoped
to see reflected in its dedication the environment.
Burton has a vast number of policy’s relating to the
environment and sustainability. The main point of our poster was top determine
which of their programs are truly green and which are green washing. The
programs that we say are green we believe to have a truly positive affect on
the environment. The programs we classified as green washing had little to no
positive affect on the environment and served only to make the company look
more environmentally friendly.
Burton had a number of green programs, some were internal to
the company and other come from working with outside company’s and organization.
The First external program is the Green mountain process, where Burton an Mt
Dew and use recycled soda bottles to make fabric for the winter wear. The
second is the affiliation with Protect Our Winters, or POW, a nonprofit
dedicated to raising awareness about global warming through professional snow
sport athletes and education.
The amount of green washing was surprising, Burton’s image is
that of an environmentally friendly company. The most disturbing of all of
these was the community gardens, which on the website look lush and full, you
could easily imagine people tending to them during their lunch breaks. The
gardens we saw were small, and further research we found that only 6%of the
company participated in the gardens. There were
They had a program called two or more gets you closer to the door, a
carpool campaign that allows closer parking for carpoolers as well as a bike
barn to allow worker to cycle instead of drive. These programs are not very
effective based on the fact that every spot in the parking lot was full. Both
were good ideas but they lacked enforcement. On case of blatant green washing
was Burtons claims of a “Green Kitchen”, it was supposedly green because Burton
stocked it with non-disposable dishes and cutlery.
Burton
has made some great steps toward being an environmentally friendly Company. The
programs they work with on a corporate level are very good. Even some of the green
washing was good intentioned, things like the availability of bicycles,
carpoolers getting priority parking, just incompletely enforced and the problem
seemed to be with the enforcement and implementation. We also had to recognize that
Burton is a consumer of materials, wood, metal and plastics in creating it
boards. It also has a huge distribution network, an environmental factor that can’t
be ignored. Overall we found that Burton
was headed the right direction and was years ahead of the competition.
One of the most
important things I learned during this project was that it isn't always
possible to find information over the internet. The first example of this was
that it was impossible to find any information about Burton’s foreign
factories. As a result we had to find information from a site visit. Our other
main source of information was Cory’s friend Chris, who granted us access to Burton’s
internal information relating to the company’s environmental stance. Another
huge learning experience for me was the creation of the poster. Andrew did most
of the layout with the rest of us consulting, I had no idea that a professional
poster was so intricate in it layout. I feel that the PAEP poster project allowed
our group to go and make our own assessment of Burton and the report out our
results and opinions, allowing us to be bias free, which is a rare opportunity.
Works
Cited
"Burton
Snowboards | History." Burton Snowboards. <http://www.burton.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Burton_US-Site/default/Company-History>.
Dimarco, Chris. "Burton
Sustainability." Burton Snowboard Company, n.d. Web. <http://boardpress.burton.com/departments/what-we-already-do>.
"Sustainability
| Burton Snowboards." Burton Snowboards. <http://www.burton.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Burton_US-Site/default/Company-Sustainability>.
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