Shaping Sustainability: J7 Surfboards and the Impacts of Sustainable Business Strategies

Our project focuses on the feasibility of establishing custom order surfboards made

from materials with reduced environmental impacts in the business model of J7

Surfboards of Santa Barbara, California. Based on a culmination of life cycle

assessments of traditional surfboards and ecoboards, economic analysis of current

surfboards produced by J7, and cross comparisons of surfboards produced by competitors –both traditional and ecoboards–our project serves to assess the

ability of J7 to introduce a ecoboard option into their custom board productions.

Through establishing this option based on their current business model and

economics, we offer a way for this local-based surfboard company to be a leader

in surf industry environmentalism within the Santa Barbara community without reducing profit margins. Our report finds that the production of sustainable

surfboards is a viable option for J7 Surfboards currently as a custom order option,

and that future implementation of a permanent ecoboard line will be feasible

with more advanced economic analysis and the popularization of sustainable surfboards.

Group 8: Alexa Garcia, Allison Candell, Kathleen Knight, Manali McCarthy, Weilly Tong

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