ENVIRONMENT
Since our founding in 1982, our love of the ocean, and spending time in nature is what drives our business. As sailors, we have seen the ongoing destruction of our natural planet firsthand, with the increase of discarded plastic, toxic chemicals and waste polluting our rivers and oceans.
We are committed to constantly evolving our business, using innovative design and research, and ensuring we are looking at every part of our business to help reduce waste and emissions through our entire supply chain.
We have a mission to ensure our oceans are kept clean and enjoyable for generations to come.
ENVIRONMENTAL PARTNERSHIPS
Live Ocean
In 2019, Doyle Sails joined forces with Live Ocean, a marine conservation charity set up in collaboration with New Zealand sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Live Ocean has a focus on projects involving marine science, innovation and public education.
Sailors for the Sea
As part of our responsibility to ensure our planet is being respected, we only choose to partner with those organisations, events, clubs and stakeholders who uphold our Environmental Values.
Doyle partners with many sailing clubs globally, helping the next generation to learn and experience the thrill of being out on the water. We encourage all our partners to work towards responsible environmental practices and policies, and prefer to work with partners who are upholding the values and principles of the Sailors for the Sea ‘Clean Regattas’ programme.
SailGP
In 2020 Doyle Sails proudly partnered with SailGP donating both time and resources towards the event.
SailGP has a strong focus on Environmental practices backed by their ‘Race to the Future’ Policies. SailGP is the first climate positive sports and entertainment property going beyond a net zero carbon footprint in all business and event operations.
Toitu Envirocare
Toitū is to care for the life of this place, our people and future. It is our name and commitment. We lead positive change through a system of robust environmental programmes that are internationally recognised. We help businesses be more sustainable by giving them the science-based tools, actions and evidence they need to make real progress. We are sharing passion backed by proof. We build and share momentum through collective action. Toitū connects people and businesses, actions and outcomes. We help everyone see the value of taking action – and doing it together.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
SUPPLIERS
We commit to:
Constantly looking at ways to reduce waste in our lofts, both in the manufacturing sites and offices.
Developing and researching new lower impact materials with the goal of developing products that are recyclable and reusable with less dependency on fossil fuels.
Identifying opportunities for growth in local supplier solutions for materials and finishing processes, in aid of reducing freight between countries, and related emissions.
Working with our customers and suppliers to reduce the amount of airfreight we use in the business.
Working with our partners to ensure any events or clubs we support are conducted responsibly, with an emphasis on reducing waste and emissions.
WASTE
We are actively working on identifying hot spots for all waste in our business, looking to reduce all plastic packaging where we can, and ensure recycling is increased in our lofts to ensure our waste to landfill is reduced.
Technology and innovation has enabled us to manufacture sails with as little material wastage as possible. We recognized that material waste happens at each stage of the supply chain, but through the development of our computer aided design, our unique sail patterns are mapped on our fabric to ensure cutting utilizes the maximum coverage of our materials. This has resulted in only 5% wastage of all our fabrics, at the cutting stage.
We are actively developing innovative ideas and products for the remaining sail offcuts, to reduce any waste from going to landfill. One of the projects we are currently developing are beach and sport bags for our partnership with SailGP – giving sail offcut waste a second life. We also deliver all our sail orders in sail bags, made from the offcut materials in the production process.
QUALITY
Sails are put under extreme pressure and conditions out at sea, and poor-quality materials can rip and tear easily, often causing sails to end up in landfill or in the ocean.
At Doyle Sails, quality and durability of our products are of the utmost importance. By increasing the life span of our sails, we extract less raw materials, use less energy and therefore have less of an impact on the environment. Quality for us is proven through extensive research and testing and has led to the development of our unique Delta Membrane technology.
To extend the life of your sails, appropriate care and cleaning should be maintained. Look at our Sail Care guide to ensure the maximum life and quality of your sails. We also offer a service, cleaning and repair to protect our customers sails from any permanent damage, ensuring the longest life for all our products.
In the future, we would like to expand our services to offer secondhand sails to enable an even longer life for our products.
MATERIALS
As a responsible company, we are constantly reviewing the materials we purchase and working with our suppliers to select materials that have a minimal impact on our planet. Our sails are designed to last so material selection is imperative to the durability of our products.
Our Research and Development team is working with our raw material suppliers on new lower impact materials for our sails, that will not compromise on quality and longevity. They are working with suppliers to develop materials made from renewable or recycled resources and production processes that reduce water use, reliance on fossil fuels and reduce emissions. We aim to focus on this development and launch new products by 2024.
PACKAGING & FREIGHT
Plastic packaging is filling up our landfills and oceans with waste and chemicals. We have committed to selecting packaging products that are functional yet soft on the planet.
We are working with our team to reduce the amount of plastic wrap we use at the delivery stage and are constantly looking for new innovative ideas and materials where we can eliminate plastic all together.
80% of the sails we make in New Zealand are sent to overseas customers. International freight is a large contributor to global emissions, so we work closely with our freight partners to make sure we are using the most efficient routes.
FedEx
Fedex is our major air freight partner globally. Fedex has a robust Sustainability Strategy and we work with them to help offset the emissions of each small package that we send.
GAC Pindar
Shipping freight in bulk always presents unique challenges and it is important to us to work with suppliers that share the same values as we do. Delivering our products safely and on time.
UPS
UPS set a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, including fueling 40% of ground operations with alternative fuels by 2025. We currently deploy more than 13,000 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles worldwide and are committed to advancing more innovations in air and ground operations.
New Zealand Couriers
As one of New Zealand’s leading freight companies, NZ Couriers (Freightways) has strong Guiding Principles in Environmental Protection. They are a CEMARS® (Certified Emissions Measurement And Reduction Scheme) certified organization, ensuring they are measuring and setting reduction targets for their emissions.
