Engage Your Sales Teams for the Planet – Florent Marcoux

Surfrider: Protecting the Ocean, the Playground for Water Sports Enthusiasts

Surfrider was born in 1990 on the Basque coast from the spontaneous mobilization of citizen volunteers, water sports enthusiasts, who wanted to protect their playground. This origin continues to permeate the organization: seeking the balance of human beings within their environment, more specifically for water sports enthusiasts in the ocean or on the coast.

The association structures its activities around three major challenges: aquatic waste (particularly plastic waste), water quality (bacteriological, biological, and chemical pollution), and coastal development (supporting energy transition while minimizing impacts).

Invisible Pollution: A Major Challenge

Florent highlighted a crucial, often overlooked point: there is no monitoring of chemical pollution and its potential impact on health. Even in water approved for swimming, there can be heavy metals, drug residues, and endocrine disruptors that are not monitored. This lack of data and epidemiological studies poses a risk to human health.

Microplastics intentionally added to cosmetic or detergent products are also a major challenge, often outside the scope of European directives. Source reduction of production and consumption is essential, because recycling is not enough: global recycling capacity is very low.

How Companies Can Take Concrete Action

All companies can contribute, even those not directly linked to the ocean. Eliminate single-use plastic in premises (cups, straws, bottles), use eco-friendly products for cleaning (which always end up in waterways), and raise employee awareness about daily actions that have an impact.

Surfrider offers tailored partnerships with companies: financial support, partnership activation with teams, organization of awareness days (JSE) combining team building and CSR actions, and digital tools to engage employees over several weeks.

Integrating Sustainable Development into Sales Challenges

There are two ways to involve a company in a sustainable challenge: allocating challenge endowments to a foundation rather than gift vouchers, or integrating into the mechanics points associated with CSR activities (e.g., participating in beach clean-up days).

This approach allows for combining commercial and environmental objectives, creating collective engagement around strong values. Employees collectively strive for a cause, thereby strengthening team cohesion and the meaning of their actions.

Concrete Examples of Transformation

Florent shared several striking examples: Biotherm, which developed a refill system for sunscreens (avoiding plastic packaging), RTE, which eliminated single-use plastic in its new tower in La Défense by distributing eco-cup kits to all employees, and the creation of a Saphir label for maritime transport that encourages shipowners to improve their practices.

These transformations show that environmental commitment can become a business strength and profoundly transform a company’s practices, while creating value for employees and customers.

In a nutshell

Here are the key takeaways from this Masterclass with Florent Marcoux:

• All companies can act: Even without a direct link to the ocean, every company can reduce its impact by eliminating single-use plastic and raising awareness among its teams.

• Integrate sustainable development into challenges: Combine commercial and environmental objectives to create collective engagement around strong values.

• To choose is to renounce: André Gide’s quote reminds us that renunciation becomes easier when one has chosen a sustainable and livable society.

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