Mountain Riders - Eco Guide du Matériel de montagne

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Rip Curl

Creation :

1969

Founder :

Doug Warbrick et Brian Singer

Activities :

Production vêtements, équipement et accessoires de surf, snowboard et ski

Group membership :

groupe Rip Curl International

Production volumes :

2,5 millions de pièces

Turnover :

50-99 M€

Number of employees :

100-499

Workplace wellbeing: Car sharing is promoted with an indicator board for journey between work and house. 2 days of awareness on mobility with incentives to encourage employees to use public transport or car sharing. Training for health and safety at work. Sport facilities, bikes and showers are available.
Men and women parity: 119 men/127 women .
Supply chain: 83% of subcontractors have signed the Rip Curl code of conduct, based on the ILO standards. Suppliers are ranked in 3 categories according to their potential risk: A, B, C.
Some suppliers have at least one of these certifications: SA8000, WRAP, OHSAS 18001, ETI, BSCI…

Environmental site management: “Eco driving” training for employees who have a business car and evolution of the vehicle fleet towards less consumption models.
Sorting of wastes, green procurement policy (FSC paper and eco label ) and training to encourage people to reduce their consumption of office supplies. 3 people in the marketing staff work on sustainable development.
Education & information:
Environmental information is available on the brands website and the Rip Curl foundation website.
Specific labels on RipCurl Planet products. Shop’s staff is trained to the sorting of wastes. Test of environmental labelling for board shorts.
Supply chain: Heterogeneous situation with certain suppliers holding an ISO 14001 certification. Rip Curl requests that it's suppliers respect their Restricted Substances List and the European REACH directive. This is controled by independant auditors for 5% of them.
GHG emissions: Carbon footprint analysis realized in 2011/2012: 15000Tons of CO2 without raw materials.The objective for 2021: 8000 Tons.
Environmental commitments: Rip Curl created a foundation which supports numerous environmental organisations such as WWF, Surfrider foundation, Mountain Riders, Surfers Against Sewage, Clean Shaper and Reef Check. Every year employees are given 1/2 day to take part in an environmental event (tree planting, beach cleaning, etc.). 95000€ of subsidies in 2012.

Global Eco design process: Rip Curl did a Life Cycle Analysis of a mountain wear jacket. All Rip Curl Planet products contain at least 55% of 'eco' raw materials (recycled polyester, organic cotton, linen).
End of life & Recycling: Projet Résurrection recuperates and recycles old wetsuits as footwear outsoles. Rip Curl also recycles production debris in its wetsuit factory. However without a global recycling solution for wetsuits, the brand has also chosen to participate in the EuroSIMA group programme.
Non Toxicity: Rip Curl requires its suppliers to respect at least the oeko-tex standards. The brand also uses Bluesign certified materials and recycled materials.
PVC has been phased out in favour of TPE.
Packaging & logistics: 70% of carboard received from suppliers is recycled. 78% of freight from le Havre (France) to warehouses uses road-rail transport versus 63% the previous year. For 09-10, the transport mix for products arriving from Asia is the following: 90% shipping, 8% airfreight, 2% roadfreight Vs 80% shipping, 2% air& shipping, 12% airfreight, 6% roadfreight the previous year. Rip Curl also took part in the EuroSIMA ploybag LCA project and has applied all derived recommendations: mvoe from PE to PP, reduced bag thickness (-20%) except for larger items.