Rip Curl Planet

Rip Curl International today launched its new "Rip Curl Planet" website, helping to showcase and outline the company's many environmental priorities - past, present and future.

Rip Curl prides itself on being one of the world's most environmentally-conscious companies, stamping "respect for the environment" as a key value ever since Brian Singer and Doug Warbrick founded the brand in Torquay, Australia in 1969.

"We're really excited about unveiling this website - it's been a long time coming," said Global Marketing & Advertising Chairman Neil Ridgway. "Rip Curl has always placed a lot of importance on environmental sustainability and it's great that we now have a medium to share our efforts and projects with crew around the world, and this website will be another important tool."

With the creation of the Rip Curl Planet Foundation in 2008, our crew have had the opportunity to increase Rip Curl's support of several growing environmental projects and further focus efforts on new target initiatives.

"We are very proud of what Rip Curl has done in the past, but there is still much to do to keep the work going," said International CEO Olivier Cantet. "We created the Rip Curl Planet Foundation to better focus our efforts and commitments around the world."

"We have a strong determination to be environmentally responsible across everything we do, so our efforts are many and diverse. We will forever focus on the environments we know best - the surf and the mountains - and be environmentally-conscious with our product design and manufacturing wherever we can."

Save Our Surf and We Surf, We Care are two of the company's principle environmental call-outs, hitting home across the Rip Curl world. The company supports several reef protection and water quality projects, working with organisations such as WWF and The Surfrider Foundation to manage the problems.

"As surfers, we feel first hand the immediate effects of pollution, we see rampant development on our coasts, we see the effects of a runaway consumer lifestyle and disregard for the future of the eco system as a whole," said three-time ASP World Champion surfer Tom Curren. "I hope my kids will have a rich surfing life, unhindered by the effects of pollution and other global issues. When I was growing up, I was lucky to live in a relatively secure environment with good waves and pleasant climate."

The Rip Curl Planet Foundation also drives a host of mainstream initiatives, such as energy consumption reduction, material recycling and waste reduction. These initiatives are addressed through a variety of ways, including Rip Curl Pro events, beach clean up days, product design and product recycling.

The Foundation has donated over US$313,205 to environmental groups since its conception, including the Surfrider Foundation, Mountain Riders, Protect Our Winters, WWF, Reef Check Polynesia and Surfers Against Sewage.

Since 2008, Rip Curl has also worked with CO2 Australia to offset greenhouse gas emissions from the Rip Curl Pro and run it as a carbon-neutral event. CO2 Australia calculates the onsite energy consumption at Bells Beach as well as competitors' and officials' travel to and from the event. Rip Curl also worked with Waste Wise this year to recycle over nine tonnes of rubbish onsite and donated 50 cents of every ticket sold to Greening Australia, who invested the money into local vegetation management and restoration.

Another important global initiative is the Rip Curl Planet Days program. Regionally managed by Rip Curl's head offices in Australia, Europe, Brazil, Indonesia and the USA, staff members leave the office for the day and head to the beach or the mountains for a day of rubbish removal and tree planting. In Torquay, the Planet Days have run for 10 years, with staff responsible for successfully putting in more than 50,000 plants indigenous to the area.

"The Rip Curl Planet Foundation has a lot of work on the table for 2010 and the challenges are only getting tougher," added Cantet. "But we have clear objectives set, such as continually developing our eco-product offerings with every range, so the future is bright."

Go green online with Rip Curl and access the Rip Curl Planet website at:
www.ripcurlplanet.com.