The folks that work at Grain have a real desire to make our love of surfing mesh with our concern for the environment. That's why we are choosing not to build boards made primarily from non-renewable foam. We are serious about facing up to our responsibility for the environmental impacts of surfing but still to surf a great board.

To begin with, there is an important distinction between full-on "sustainability" and being simply "more green" than the alternatives. The standards for the latter are pretty easy to hit, as our culture is one of mindless consumption, addiction to convenience at any cost, and cheap knock-off manufacturing that uses materials that promise the greatest short-term profitability possible regardless of their non- renewable nature or toxicity to the environment. We can all do better than that.

"Sustainability" for a manufactured product requires a whole other level of commitment, cost and complexity. Our wish is that we could build a totally "green" surfboard today. But today, we can't. Tomorrow is another story though, and as a small start-up company we have a lot to aspire to, yet feel limited in how much we can do right now. See our separate FAQ on Sustainability for more information.

Here is a list of what we know we are not doing and what we are pleased that we are doing on the environmental responsibility front:

Being Green:

• By volume, our boards are mostly air - the same that we breathe, not a toxic blend that is the by-product of foam production.
• The second largest component of a Grain Surfboard is cedar wood. Our boards are made primarily of Northern White Cedar, which when sustainably managed is a true renewable resource. Our cedar comes from family-owned Maine mills and is harvested at sustainable levels monitored by state forestry officials. Non- wood surfboards contain zero renewable resources.
• Because our cedar ships from mills in Maine, and because it is the largest single component by weight, Grain avoids the large environmental costs of trans-national or international transport of raw materials that is common in the current "just in time" manufacturing culture.
• We also look for wood from other sources to re-use, particularly for tail blocks and other accents.
• Comparable to foam boards, we believe ours to be more long lasting under conditions typical for our customers. Although our boards have not been around for a decade yet, we will not be surprised to see them still surfing after that amount of time. They do not ding like foam, and don't crack as easily given the superior structural support that wood provides to the epoxy skin. Longer lasting products means less stress on the environment in consumption, in waste production and in energy use required to move goods.
• Our customers love the way our boards look, so if the day that they are no longer surf-able finally arrives, it is less likely that they will be discarded into the waste stream, but instead kept for ornamental purposes.
• If the epoxy skin is removed, as 99% of the rest of the board is biodegradable.
• Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contribute significantly to photochemical smog production and certain severe health problems. The MAS Epoxy used in Grain surfboards has been engineered to have zero volatile organic compounds. Polyester resins used in many foam boards (and the acetone to clean up after it) are significant VOC emitters. Most eps foam/epoxy boards are hot coated and gloss coated over the epoxy laminating coat with VOC emitting polyester resin. All coats on Grain boards are zero-VOC epoxy.
• Grain produces no Toluene Di Isocynate (TDI) the toxic emission of which was the principal chemical compound that closed the Clark Foam facility.
• Opting for disposable brushes rather than VOC generating cleaning solvents means that very few solvents are used in the Grain shop - a small amount of lacquer thinner is used after citrus cleaner to keep our squeegees clean.
• Grain makes a concerted effort to re-use or, if we must, to recycle. Our PVC clamps are from used or discarded pipes, all our wood shavings are donated to local horse barns, our clean floor sweepings are sent to a composter, our off-cuts are used for heating fuel, and our total weekly waste is as little as we can make it.
• No nuclear power is produced in Maine.
• Everyone that works at Grain commutes less than twenty minutes.

Being Not-so-Green:

• Grain boards require a relatively small amount of adhesives in the assembly of our boards. 3M 5200 is a stable, low volatility, urethane marine adhesive. Titebond III is a volatile polyvinyl acetate adhesive. Both contain small amounts of VOC's and other chemicals which can be hazardous in the liquid state. These compounds are not biodegradable or recyclable.
• Boards are covered with fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. While the main ingredient in fiberglass is merely sand, it takes a tremendous amount of energy to produce the glass fibers. Epoxy is a hazardous chemical that can cause cumulative skin sensitivity.
• Our boards also have several coats of yacht varnish to protect the epoxy from UV rays. Yacht varnish contains aliphatic solvents and emits VOC's.
• Many of our supplies (particularly adhesives and incidentals like fins and leash plugs) are procured from supply houses all over the country and are made from non-renewable resources.
• Grain does not know where the electrical power it uses comes from because of a market in power trading made more unaccountable by deregulation. The only green alternative is local power production using wind or solar which is out of reach for us.

Let us know how that works out: we want to do that as well. The original Tom Blake style hollow wood boards used no epoxy, but in order to achieve lighter weight boards Grain has developed a construction method that we think requires some structural/waterproof skin. You might try epoxy coated fabrics like hemp/silk hybrids as a greener alternative. Some experimentation with increased internal support and/or different adhesives may be required before we feel that we could develop a reliably watertight structure (without the use of glass and epoxy).