Comet Skateboards - Innovative Entrepreneurships

Comet Skateboards - Innovative Entrepreneurships

So many companies and organizations are riding the "green" bandwagon these days - claiming to be responsible stewards of our fragile earth vis-a-vis our rapidly changing climate - it's hard to tell those employing cool marketing techniques - but little substance - from those truly committed to reducing their carbon imprint. Even oil companies like BP are flashing their green through commercials and investment in renewable energy sources. But when it comes to Comet Skateboards, there is no doubt about the sincerity of this company's production and marketing strategies. Comet in fact goes farther into the realm of a sustainable "cradle-to-cradle" business model than most if not all manufacturers of popular contemporary products.

A pivotal part of the entrepreneurship and marketing process for Comet Skateboards - which has production facilities in Oakland, California and in Ithaca, New York (where the company is called "Comet Action Sports") - is linking with groups and companies that are on the same wave length as comet CEO Jason Salfi and his co-owner Don Shaffer. That wavelength, according to Salfi (quoted in Phoresia Magazine) is promoting a sustainable life style that includes "all walks" of life. It is "relating" a sense of environmental responsibility to youth to "inspire more free thought - a lifetime of independence." The philosophy behind Comet's use of solar energy to power their production facilities and use of green materials to build their boards is the driver that keeps Salfi, Shaffer, and their employees on the road to building the momentum towards the new economy.

We hope that by bringing attention to clean energy," Salfi explained in the Phoresia interview, "we can help spur more market demand and make that type of power more available through the power companies." He acknowledges that "...not everyone can afford to buy solar panels," but the process of gearing up citizen consciousness toward clean renewable energy is as exciting to Salfi and Shaffer as the actual production of the boards.

Comet's posted information on its Web site (www.cometskateboards.com) of course features illustrations and specifications of the actual boards they sell. There is the "Biowhip Speed" with "vertically laminated base bamboo core...SOY RESIN, Triaxial HEMP fabric" that offers "unparalleled snap and ability to pump for speed." It is 38" x 9' with a 25.5-inch wheelbase and sells online for $129 as is, and $219 assembled. That's the basic stuff.

But the big picture when it comes to Comet Skateboards is where the materials come from that they use in their manufacturing process, and what organizations they partner with to provide consumers with not only a really cool skateboard but also the information about how to change the world economically and socially.

For example, Comet presents their marketing and operating philosophy without preaching, but by showing and allowing consumers to learn through the business relationships they embrace, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Comet buys wood exclusively from companies that have membership in FSC, a group that promotes eco-friendly logging policies. Their Web site (www.fscus.org) points out "...logging still contributes to habitat destruction, water pollution, displacement of indigenous peoples, and violence against people who work in the forest and the wildlife that dwells there." When wood has the "Forest Stewardship Council" certification, the purchaser can be certain that it was harvested in a responsible way.

Anyone interested in a better, more environmentally responsible way to manage the world's forests, can click on the link that Comet provides and learn more about FSC. Comet clearly wants the public and its customers to know that they are interconnected with green advocacy organizations like FSC. Their Web site points out that FSC was formed in 1993 in order to "...change the dialogue about and the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide." In other words, if you want a skateboard that was made from trees that were clear-cut by a greedy fly-by-night logging enterprise, don't buy from Comet.

Additional organizations Comet connects with regarding safe forestry practices include the "Sustainable Forestry Initiative," "Forest Ethics," "Meridian Institute" and "CU Fiber Science Research." it's an education in itself just to explore the links on Comet's Web site.

In recent article in the magazine Grist, Comet's co-owner (with Salfi) Shaffer mentioned that he is the executive director of "Business Alliance for Local Living Economies" (BALLE). Shaffer explained that BALLE - which is interconnected with Comet's entrepreneurship processes - is an alliance of more than 5,400 entrepreneurs in the U.S. And in Canada who are "...dedicated to building "Local Living Economies" (LLE). These economies are committed to "the long-term health of a particular place," Shaffer went on, "whether it is a big city like Philadelphia, medium-sized town like Grand Rapids, Michigan, or a rural area like the Rogue River Valley" in Oregon.

Several of the principles of BALLE include promoting the "decentralized ownership of businesses," "fair wages," promoting news media stories that are "independent of corporate control," and promoting the idea that BALLE members buy from other BALLE members and BALLE entrepreneurs treat customers with dignity and respect, in order to foster good will.

Imagine for a moment a young growing company that is marketing its wares and its brand by helping other young companies; that is another way of describing Comet's outreach. Shaffer and Salfi are creating a "local stock exchange" (LSE) for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area market that, Shaffer explains, will support "...small, community-based triple-bottom-line companies." Triple bottom line (TBL or 3BL) companies point towards "people, planet, and profit" - pursuing an economic profitability in concert with the environment and what is best for society. The local stock exchange is by way of creating a new model for communities to open the door of opportunities for small, locally owned companies. "Instead of the 20th Century model of throwing tax breaks and subsidies to large corporations," Shaffer continued, small, local entrepreneurships are nurtured into successful businesses that hire and train people in socially and environmentally responsible methods.