The turn of the year brought in a lot of new things for Volcom and amid the transition to a new CEO was the re-tooled Company Mission to include an increased focus on sustainability for the 22 year old, Orange County based action sports leader. The commitment, while on the company radar since 2006, has been strengthened in partnership with its parent company Kering and the Kering Sustainability Team.
 
Since 2006, Volcom has offered a range of products under the V.Co-logical Series collection, contributing 1% of the sales to environmentally focused non-profits, thanks to the company’s 1% for the Planet membership. These days, however, the company is digging deeper with a very specific strategy and is uncovering what it means to truly offer products and run a business who’s environmental impacts are lessened.
“We have a real opportunity to influence change,” Jason Steris, Volcom’s newly appointed CEO said. “Our investments in a yearly EP&L will help us make better decisions regarding our impact on the environment and will help us better manage long term risks as we grow the company.”
 
An EP&L or Environmental Profit & Loss, as introduced first by PUMA in 2010 and committed to by Kering, is a means of placing a monetary value on a company’s environmental impact along the entire supply chain of a select set of products and as 2013 began, so did Volcom’s first forays into their initial EP&L for their apparel products. To aid them in the process, Volcom has retained the services of Steve Richardson at Material STEPS, the former Director of Material Development at Patagonia.
 
Supply chain scrutiny is one part of the company’s comprehensive approach and included in Volcom’s 3-year sustainability plan are additional goals to be reached by 2016:
 
• Reducing the company’s carbon emissions, waste and water usage by 25%
• Ensuring there is no PVC in any of their collections
• Sourcing paper and packaging items sustainably from recycled sources and/or certified well-managed forests
• Increasing the amount of sustainable materials and processes in all product mixes
• Certifying major surf events as Deep Blue Surfing Events
• Continuing Give Backs to community-based programs
 
 
Volcom’s sustainability strategy is managed by Derek Sabori, the company’s Senior Director of Sustainability, who notes that, “There’s still so much work to be done, but we’ve spent a lot of time instilling our sustainability principles into the DNA of the company. The building blocks and the blueprint are there. Now it’s time to execute.”