FULL DEDICATION
THE POSSIBILITIES
THE CONSTRAINTS
Windsurfing as a sport is not so unique, in that you need equipment and transportation, to get you going, but it’s special in that we’re neither impacting vegetation, nor using energy or producing emissions while we practice our sport. Goya’s dedication as a designer of professional windsurfing equipment is to find comparable manufacturing processes for our products. This means we implement recycle and cradle-to-cradle apploaches where ever possible, and aspire the “less bad” where our times or our habits still inhibit green alternatives.
Make no mistake, no windsurfing brand is sustainable and green yet, and neither are we. There are countless toxic substances in the gear we use every time we go sailing. However, while in many places, technological advancement is considered limited to lighter, faster and shinier materials, we also strive to improve Goya in terms of its impact on nature, on our environment, on our bodies and on what we leave behind.
Many of our products have been packaged in layers of bubble wrap and sealed in plastic bags. We used metallic printing. We used neon printing. We used PVC for it creates soft sails and rigid boards. In the future, many of these things will change with Goya. And while it is our responsibility to come up with new, equal or even better solutions, it is your responsibility, as a consumer, to accept them, to acknowledge that professional quality is not a matter of polish and sparkle, but of core values, experience, ingenuity and full dedication.
SEE BELOW A SELECTION OF CURRENT AND FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS
Hangtags
MADE FROM
RECYCLE CARDBOARD PAPER
Instead of using shiny foils and flashy spot gloss for an item that will get tossed after a few seconds or weeks anway, we go with a minimum of hangtags and with the most ecological paper choice.
ECO™ Sails
MADE FROM
QUALITY OVERSTOCK MATERIALS
Our Eco sails are effectively using up overstock and leftovers of the finest sailmaking materials known to mankind. They may be last year’s PRO materials or past color combination, but they guarantee savings for you wallet and prevent nature from dumped resources.
Sail Packaging
MADE FROM
RECYCLE PAPER
Conventionally made from foam and foils in the past, and often seen flying around the beach, ending up in bushes for good, well, bad, these are now made from recycle paper and rice paper on all Goya sails.
Hangtag Rope
MADE FROM
HEMP
Have you ever wondered what to do with all those metal ball chains that come with every product you buy? Well we have, and when we ran out of shower curtains requiring suspension, we figured it was time to go for something with a smaller footprint.
Foils
MADE FROM
COMPOSTABLE MATERIAL
Some products require waterproof packaging, for example to keep them from catching mildew during shipping. For those cases we are aspiring to use biodegradable foils made from starch. To come soon.
Elastic Films
MADE FROM
Thermoplastic polyurethane
PVC, three very big letters. We are hoping to be able to cut it from out sails entirely by using a new film that’s being experimented with and tested as you read this. It’s about time. If you are a competitor, feel free to go ahead and try it yourself, but please share the results openly. After all, this is about a greater goal than market share.
Reusing Boxes
MADE FROM
RECYCLE CARDBOARD PAPER
Whenever shipping boards and sails out from our Maui headquarters, we reuse the boxes that all production products come in. We don’t burn them, we don’t trash them, we store them. They were made for a specific purpose and dimension, and we refuse to see them as a throw away item.
Multi Year Range
MADE FROM
THE AWARENESS THAT TREND IS FLEETING
We’ve been chewing on this topic for quite a while, but it seems that everybody seems to be more happy with running products for more than 365 days. In some ways, the fact we’re running multi year ranges now, even allows for this Green Loyalty page in the first place.
Strong Materials
MADE FROM
THE FINEST THAT THE INDUSTRY HAS TO OFFER
Less break equals less trash. That was the punchline for this topic, and there is not much more to say to bring the point home. Other than maybe that it translates into less shipping, becaus the product will last you longer.
Minimal Printing
MADE FROM
A RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS OUR WORKERS
Most sail brands achieve their look by printing big graphics or extensive gradients and grids. Screen printing onto sails however brings severe health issues along. Toxic exposure. Airborne chemicals. We do but a bare minimum. Our graphics are made by drawing lines, cutting panels and using beautiful materials.
ECO™ Boards
MADE FROM
Australian pine (certified sustainable)
Of course there are a majority of other materials in our Eco boards, but among these we use Australian Pine to reinforce stress areas with wood. In that we use this beautiful regrowing resource as a tool however, as a building block, not as a decorative element.
