When we look at the snowboard industry, a few big names pop up, but only one is the biggest in the industry. This company is Burton. Burton accounts for forty to seventy percent of snowboard sales worldwide. It is safe to say that they are the biggest corporation in snowboarding. Given that they are the biggest corporation in the snowboard industry, you would believe that they are very environmentally aware, before we dwell into that we need to analyze what they produce and how. Burton was founded in 1977 by the founder, Jake Burton Carpenter. Burton aimed his products at snowboarders. His product line featured snowboards, snowboard bindings, and snow outerwear. Burton’s climb to fame in the snowboard …show more content…
Primarily, they will have an environmental goal because their sales depend on the environment. There are incentives for why a company would want to be environmentally sustainable. For example, Burton needs there to be snow in order for them to continue selling snowboards and snowboard accessories. While there are a couple indoor places to snowboard or to ski, this alone will not be able to allow the corporation to thrive, like they are currently thriving today. Burton needs winters in order for them to be able to sell products. In Burton’s Mission Statement, they discuss this point. They also discuss how snowboarders need to take a stand against global warming. This mission statement not only has goals and motivational lines to inspire snowboarders to take a stand against global warming, they also discuss some things that they, as a corporation, have done to help lessen their environmental footprint. They like their employees to bike to work. They also have put in compost bins at their headquarters to help lessen the amount of waste that their workers produce. Both of these are small changes, but do help lessen their environmental footprint a little bit. When we discuss Burton clothing, we also think about outdoor clothing companies such as Patagonia. According to rankabrand.org, Burton has received the lowest rating that a brand could receive. Patagonia had received a fairly high rank compared …show more content…
The only evidence of them helping on their website is the increase of compost bins and their biking to work. Many of their campaigns are fairly new which could be a possibility as to why there is not as much evidence of their completion of that campaign. Burton has joined BICEP. According to Ceres.org, by joining BICEP they have committed to work on their energy use and partnered with bluesign®. BluesignⓇ has been tasked with looking at how Burton makes their products and how they can make them more efficient. While there has not been that much evidence for Burton’s plans for efficiency, we can still evaluate whether or not their plan is truly sustainable, or just a public front for green washing. Burton’s success truly relies on the environment and the winters. However, their actions could be seen as green washing. By making themselves seem like a more environmentally friendly company, they can attract more customers. However, snowboarding is one of the most outdoors intensive activities out there. Therefore they should help preserve the glaciers and help reduce climate change. By helping reduce climate change they will be able to sell their products