Research Summaries
Rip Curl
The Beginning
Rip Curl is a company that was created by surfers for surfers. Founders Doug "Claw" Warbrick and Brian "Sing Ding" Singer were both surfers who began making boards for the love of the sport. The two went on to create Rip Curl. They started in a garage and grew into the company that it is today.
Rip Curl's brand has 3 key pillars
1. Preserve and Protect our oceans
The company works with local and international environmental groups on projects that help clean up the beaches and protect coastal environments. Some of the projects they work on include revegetating beach and mountain areas, picking up trash on the beaches and making their events waste free. The company has a Planet Day where all warehouse and office crew spend a day working to rehabilitate natural environments in their loal areas.
2. Environmental Products
They also work to clean up their supply chain and production cycle for their products. They find new ways to become more and more environmentally conscious. They are actually working to become a B Corp certified company. Becoming a B Corp certified business means that they have met "the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose"
3. Act Sustainably
They work to find ways to better manage waste management even at their own events. Their Iconic Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach is their largest event and is entirely plastic free. Their Rip Curl Cup Padang Padang supports a Plastic Free Uluwatu non profit which is working to improve waste management systems in Pecatu Village. Competitors and event staff also help clean up local beaches and valleys.
Sources
https://www.ripcurl.com/us/explore/history/the-beginning.html
https://www.ripcurl.com/us/explore/rip-curl-planet/we-surf-we-care.html
https://bcorporation.net/about-b-corps#:~:text=Certified%20B%20Corporations%20are%20businesses,to%20balance%20profit%20and%20purpose.
Coastal Erosion
Coastal Erosion Overview
Coastal erosion is "the process by which local sea level rise, strong wave action and coastal flooding wear down or carry away rock soil and/or sand along the coast. Today, coastal erosion costs $500 million per year for property loss, and damages to structures and loss of coastal land. more than 80,000 acres of wetlands are lost every year. Between 1998 and 2009 the US has lost an area of wetland larger than the state of Rhode Island. The loss of sandy beaches isn't just a loss for people. It severely impacts biodiversity of coastal species, they no longer have an area to nest, breed or feed.
Damage
The loss of coastal beaches due to erosion has lead to a significant increase in flooding. This has been noticed in California where the high tide ends up creating floods in coastal communities. This has the potential to severely impact nearly 200,000 Californians who live in areas that are lower than 1 ft. below sea level.
New Orleans is another area that has been impacted by the loss of coastal environments. Louisiana has the highest rate of wetland loss in the country, loosing nearly 1,900 square miles of its coast. This has the potential to cause severity property damage and increases the severity of hurricanes and tropical storms. Wetlands are natural storm barricades, when they are lost there is no more natural protection.
Solutions
People have tried a number of things in an attempt to combat the effects of coastal erosion. One of those solutions has been building sea walls.
Sea Walls
Seawalls are structures that are installed in front of coastal properties in an attempt to protect homes from storm surges. These structures actually end up increasing erosion.
Beach Nourishment
Beach nourishment is the process by which sand is dug up from other areas and placed on the beaches in an attempt to replace sand that has been eroded away. These projects are expensive and the sand usually doesn't stay in place very long.
Best Solution
The best solution to mitigate the impacts of coastal erosion is through natural solutions. Replanting coastal vegetation that has been lost help stabilize coastal land and keep it in place. another solution is watershed and dude restoration. Fortifying natural systems rather than constructing man made structures will be cheaper, and provide longer lasting positive impact.
Sources
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-causes-beach-erosion/
https://www.surfrider.org/coastal-blog/entry/seawalls-are-stealing-our-sandy-beaches?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=CC&fbclid=IwAR1Hiaz4T52RLLzZMAbW7T2gUQrW8lY5VZxUWPXWyLj1sXmtd2qcFfK043k
https://ready.nola.gov/hazard-mitigation/hazards/coastal-erosion/#:~:text=Coastal%20erosion%20is%20the%20wearing,plain%20are%20complex%20and%20varied.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/dec15/california-flooding.html
https://toolkit.climate.gov/topics/coastal-flood-risk/coastal-erosion
Water & the Environment
Ocean Health
Oceans are drivers of global systems that make Earth habitable for life. Rainwater, drinking water, weather, climate, coastlines, food and even oxygen are all somehow regulated and reliant on oceans. The oceans are actually responsible for producing 50% of the oxygen in the atmosphere and is the largest carbon sink that we have, holding and producing more carbon and oxygen than the Amazon Rain Forest. Currently the oceans are deteriorating at frightening rates. This is caused largely by pollution, overfishing, and general destruction of marine ecosystems.
Water Pollution
Fresh Water Contamination
In the United States almost 400 small rural water systems and schools are unable to provide safe drinking water. This can be caused by runoff from industrial farming leaching into the water supply. Treatment for these systems is expensive. It could cost between $30-160 million dollars annually to fix.
There have also been issues with chemical and sewage spills into our fresh water systems. In West Virginia there was a 10,000 gallon chemical spill that left hundreds of thousands of people without clean drinking water. In Ohio there was a toxic algae bloom which contaminated the drinking supply. You can also look at Flint Michigan where the water quality was poisoning the residents who were unaware of the pollution in their drinking water. The chemicals in the drinking water were so toxic that when the water was used in the car manufacturing plants the water was actually eroding the metal car frames.
Big Oil and Big Gas companies are against any regulations on polluting water that might cut into their bottom line. Coal companies dump waste from their mining processes into freshwater streams. Huge farms send massive amounts of runoff into drinking water as well.
Storm Water Pollution
When we leave trash on the streets when there is a large storm all of these contaminants mix together in our storm drains which run into our oceans, creeks and rivers untreated. This leads to public health risks. If people are swimming in these waters after a storm that means they are also swimming with all the toxic chemicals as well. The LA county department of health and services has recommended that after it rains people should avoid contact with ocean water for at least 3 days after it has stopped raining. This severely impacts the economy of LA where the beaches are a tourist attraction and big driver of the local economy. If the beaches are polluted people can't swim or enjoy so they won't come.
Overfishing
Three billion people depend on the oceans to live. Fisheries employ over 200 million people worldwide. Currently we are fishing faster than populations can recover. This is caused largely by massive fishing vessels which drag nets along the bottom of ocean floors pulling up large amounts of fish but also leaving swaths of barren ocean floor in it's wake. There are also large fishing nets which scoop up anything and everything in their path including sharks, dolphins, turtles and sea birds. This has caused an imbalance in the food chain which has a number of negative repercussions on ocean health. It has also affected many coastal villages particularly in West Africa where villagers fishing in dug out canoes need to compete with industry fishing vessels from Asia and Europe.
Sources
https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-water-quality-challenges/
https://environmentcalifornia.org/programs/cae/protect-californias-waters
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/outreach/erase_waste/swpollution.shtml
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean-oxygen.html#:~:text=At%20least%20half%20of%20Earth's,Earth%20comes%20from%20the%20ocean.
Activist Organizations
Surfrider
Surfrider is a foundation that fights to protect the oceans. They want to reduce plastic in marine environments, protect oceans from threats that impact ocean ecosystems, and find ways to help protect and maintain our fresh water supplies.
User Experience:
I think this website is nicely designed. It is aesthetically pleasing and simple to navigate. The images and iconography are simple but impactful.
Save our Shores
Save our Shores is a organization that looks to help ocean conservation efforts through the community. This is specifically an organization that is located in the Monterey Bay. They have 3 main pillars, clean shores, health habitats, and living waters.
User Experience:
This webpage also has a nice design. I like the simple color pallet that is cohesive throughout the website. The animations on the landing page are cute and inviting. The bottom of the main page is a little dated and looks very cluttered.
Surfers Against Sewage
This is a organization that helps organize beach clean ups, educated people and campaign for clean water and an end to plastic pollution. They are really invested in ensuring clean water and preventing sewage pollution.
User Experience:
I really like that this website has a sense of personality. You can see it in their choice of typography, and imagery. They have a bold style but it is executed well.
Sources
https://www.surfrider.org/
https://saveourshores.org/
https://www.sas.org.uk/our-work/
Advertising
https://www.adsoftheworld.com/taxonomy/brand/surfrider_foundation
https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/film/patagonia_blue_heart
Existing Apps
Safer Seas Service
Positives:
People really enjoy the functionality of this app. They enjoy they can use it for coastal waters and rivers as well. No ads, it simply provides a service. The design is simple and easy to understand.
Needs Improvement:
Sometimes the app crashes, there is limited coverage and doesn't show information for inland lakes or rivers. Won't allow some users to skip subscription.
Clean Swell
Positives:
People like the mission and the ability to track what they are picking up from the beach.
Needs Improvement:
People are struggling to register and get the app to work. Adding items is too touchy. Items will either enter too much or will be added by accident while scrolling through the app. It's difficult to make corrections, and you can't delete incorrectly selected items. Some would like the app to be more social. The interface design is dated and looks old and uninviting.
Marine Debris Tracker
Positives:
People like the content. They like the idea of crowd sourced science, and being able to track the garbage that they collected on their beach clean ups. The visual design of the app is very cohesive and nice to look at.
Needs Improvement:
Some users complained that the app was not accessible for visually impaired users. It's difficult to initially understand what it is and how it is used. At first glance it is challenging to know what to do.
Conclusions
How will Sustainability fit into our Product Design?
For our product design we want to focus on spreading information about how and why marine life and the oceans are so important to us. Through this research I found out a lot of things that I didn't know were an issue. If people have a better understanding of how we are impacting our oceans and how that in turn affects us I think that would be a way to drive all other kinds of changes. I think the biggest problem is right now these problems are out of sight and therefore out of mind.
Another problem in regards to sustainability is that this seems like such a big challenge. It almost seems unsolvable. For an individual this could be intimidating and make them feel like they can't really make a difference. I think that especially relates to plastic pollution. I don't think many people believe that their single plastic bag is really going to make a difference. In our interviews some of the individuals we spoke to said that they know ocean health is an issue but they don't really want to spend their time reading articles or watching videos that are just telling them the problems they want a way to make change.
It also seems that a lot of these issues, coastal erosion, water pollution and overfishing stem from public policy and legislation. I think we could think about incorporating a way for people to feel like they really are making a difference by providing them with the tools to reach out to their local legislative branches and push for changes to be made.
We could do this by taking advantage of the community that these apps and organizations are already using. Use the community to empower the individual. That way the challenge doesn't appear so daunting and unsolvable.
User Experience For Our Product
I think that the current products on the market that relate to this area of ocean health and sustainability are very diverse. The webpages of activist organizations are well done, visually appealing for the most part. However on pages that focus more on education the text and information is overwhelming and dense. I don't think people want to spend all their time reading about problems. I think there's an opportunity to utilize videos, or augmented reality to express this information is a way that is easier to digest for the user.
Phone apps I think are another opportunity for growth. The apps that I have seen so far seem very dated. The UX design is often confusing and users will give up trying to use the app because they can't figure out how to make it work. I think for our app we need to ensure that everything is explained and laid out in a step by step way.
I really enjoyed the Surfers against Sewage webpage. I loved that it had a sense of personality. I would really like to incorporate that same individuality in our product. Rip Curl is such a loved brand with a vivid and lively feel and culture around it. I think it would give the application or digital product a sense of feeling and make users want to interact with the product more. A Rip Curl story that really stuck out to me was when they were talking about the first competition at Bells Beach they would compete for beer money and they would all go to a local pub for a drink after the competition. Finding a way to incorporate that feeling of hanging out at the beach with friends and having a good time I think would be valuable to include in our app.