Fletcher Chouinard heads up the more than 20-year-old company FCD Surfboards, backed by Patagonia, with the tagline: “We build each surfboard like it's our own.”

As a surfboard designer, Fletcher has been “instrumental in bringing environmental awareness to the surfing industry,” according to a 2007 profile from Business 2.0 Magazine. When asked about how to make surfboards green, he told The Kiteboarder in 2018 that he was a little jaded about alternative material being the solution, and that unless there’s a big breakthrough in the area, the most environmentally-conscious thing to do is invest in a durable board.

“Everyone has a footprint,” he said. “Even if I carve a natural deadfall tree into a surfboard, it’s still releasing CO2 out of the wood—we do our best to make a product that lasts a long time.”

Surfing, Sustainability, Adventure, Climate Change, Extreme Sports, Environment, Ethics & Integrity, Green