This October, Burton announced big news: the company is the first snowboard company in the industry to achieve B Corp certification. This award is given to companies that have outstanding social and ecological goals. We have summarised the successes that Burton has already achieved on their way to sustainable and responsible production and which targets they will achieve by 2020.
Co-CEO Donna Carpenter announcing that Burton is now a B Corporation at the company headquarters in Burlington (Pic: @JesseDawson)
Burton divides its individual sustainability targets for products into three main areas: softgoods, hardgoods and packaging.
Softgoods
Since this winter 91% of Burton's outdoor products have been bluesign® certified and by 2020 the target for softgoods is 100%. Bluesign® signifies that only sustainable cotton is used, no biocides and less water is used for production. The aim is to ensure that the products do not contain any chemicals that harm the environment or the consumers.
Hardgoods
All Burton snowboards are FSC™ certified, which means that the wood used in the core of the boards is sourced from responsibly farmed forests. Burton also measures the environmental impact of its hardgoods using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software and seeks to reduce it by making adjustments to material and design choices and manufacturing processes.
Blue Tomato rider Anna Gasser with her Burton equipment
Packaging
There have also been some changes in the packaging. At least 80% of the packaging has to be made of recycled materials and by 2020 even 100% of the packaging should be recyclable or compostable.
Hopefully our push in this direction will bring more and more brands along with us toward more responsible product.
Ali Kenney, Burton Director of Global Sustainability
Employees & Production
Burton has been a family business since its inception and therefore sees its employees as part of a large family. Accordingly, the health and well-being of the employees is essential for the success of the company. Burton supports a "green lifestyle": for example by offering healthy food at work, workshops in this sector or flexible working hours to spend more time in the mountains. Burton also places value on its production partners adhering to high social and environmental standards and monitors this regularly.
Climate
As an outdoor brand, Burton has always followed the policy that nature is our playground to protect. The company therefore aims to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 20% until 2021/22. A major step in this direction was the installation of 942 solar cells on the roof of the headquarter in Vermont, ensuring that Burton's entire energy needs can be covered by renewable energy sources. In addition, the bluesign®, FSC and B Corp certifications are a major step in reducing their environmental footprint.
Burton supports the organizations POW (Protect our Winters)
Nature is the largest playground in the world and Burton's goal as an outdoor sports brand is to take responsibility for our environment and reduce its impact on nature. Therefore, they support several organizations like POW (Protect our Winters) and BICEP (Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy) to enforce stricter climate laws. They also initiated campaigns like #phoneitin and #dropinandvote, which were launched at the US Open, which has been CO2-neutral since 2017.
Burton wants to be a role model for other companies and address policy issues that affect people and the environment.
