Welcome to an eclectic GSB News and Notes, featuring the 2017 Waste World Cup, an interview with green-sports partnership seller Christina Thirkell of nonprofit Sailors for the Sea, and the first GSB appearance of Paddle Boarding as eco-athlete Donica Shouse “paddles for the planet.” 

 
UK’S WASTE WORLD CUP HELPS RAISE MONEY FOR WASTE SERVICES IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
The 2017 Waste World Cup – the British waste industry’s premier football/soccer tournament (they have other, lower level tournaments…who knew?) – takes place on September 1 at the University of Northampton. The event supports nonprofit WasteAid UK in their efforts to raise funds for waste services in developing countries.
According to an August 3 story by Steve Eminton in Let’s Recycle, the “UK’s leading independent dedicated website for businesses, local authorities and community groups involved in recycling and waste management,” this year marks “the 15th anniversary of the mixed-gender waste industry football tournament.”
Reigning champions and British waste management leader Bagnall & Morris returns to defend its crown against 23 challengers in the one-day, six-per-side football fest. Other British waste management industry stalwarts that will try to take down B&M include Hadfield Wood Recyclers, Red Kite Waste, Smart Solutions, and Valpak (not the US coupon company, but a UK environmental compliance firm of the same name.)
 

Bagnall & Morris won its first Waste World Cup crown in 2016 and is out to make it two in a row on September 1st (Photo credit: Let’s Recycle/Bagnall & Morris)

 
Set up by waste industry professionals, WasteAid UK’s vision is to create a world with equal access to waste services for all. The nonprofit has an audacious goal: To increase spending on waste management from 0.3% to 3% of all international aid.
Mike Webster, chief executive at WasteAid, told Eminton that: “Yet again we are overwhelmed by the waste sector coming on-side to support better waste management for all. Two billion people don’t have any kind of waste service[s] and we are facing a global crisis, with climate change and marine plastics among the symptoms of our lack of action.
“Our goal is to help people deliver low-cost and local waste management, wherever they are. Adopting a community-scale approach to waste management helps score the hat-trick of improved health, better jobs and a protected environment.”
 
CHRISTINA THIRKELL: SELLING CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS FOR SAILORS FOR THE SEA
GreenSportsBlog: Christina, you are a rare bird — for now, at least — in that you make your living educating and presenting corporations on the benefits of green-themed partnerships/sponsorships on behalf of Sailors for the Sea. How did you carve this niche?
Christina Thirkell:  I am an ocean lover and spent my childhood summers in Maine and in Marblehead, MA where my grandfather owned a marina next to the Boston Yacht Club. So I was hooked on the ocean from age four.
GSB: Did you go into sailing or boating as a career?
CT: No. I gravitated towards the advertising agency world with my fascination with brand marketing. I worked on a broad base of accounts in the sports and active lifestyle categories, including Converse, Danskin Brands and Ben Hogan Golf, just to name a few. Then I pivoted to the client side, picking up responsibilities in addition to marketing, including investor relations and public relations at a leading technology analyst firm, Giga Information Group.
 

Christina Thirkell, partnership consultant for Sailors for the Sea (Photo credit: Christina Thirkell)

 
GSB: WOW! That’s a perfect background for your current role at Sailors for the Sea — a sailor with an appreciation for the ocean who understands what big brands want and need. So did you go into sponsorship sales after your tenure at Giga Information Group?
CT: Not right away. I had a strong desire to work in the non-profit arena. I was introduced to a financial executive in Boston who had started a golf event, raising funds at the time directed for cancer research to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He had started the Expect Miracles Foundation, with the mission of rallying the financial world to support the fight against cancer. It was small operation at the time. No website, no marketing, no staff.
GSB: Whoa…
CT: So I joined with the goal of building the brand, almost from scratch…
GSB: …That’s a big goal!
CT: I developed the website and handled all of the communications, messaging, programing and fundraising development. We took the Foundation from $200,000 to $13 million in nine years and expanded it from Boston to New York City and California. By the time I left the organization, we had over 100 corporate financial sponsors including the big firms such as JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Legg Mason, John Hancock, Northern Trust and American Century Investments.
GSB: Congratulations! You were playing in the big leagues and playing well! So then what happened?
CT: Thank you! A few years ago I started following Sailors for the Sea and was really blown away with their mission…
GSB: …Which is to unite boaters and sailors to protect the ocean…,
CT: Yes…I also found myself excited about their branding, their outstanding programs like Clean Regattas, along with their foothold in the sailing and boating community. I expressed my interest in working with them in any capacity. A few months ago, the President reached out as they were looking for a consultant who could launch their corporate sponsorship and engagement program
GSB: Very cool! How is it going so far? And what kinds of companies are you talking to?
CT: So far, so good. It’s early days, but the reaction has been positive. In early June we developed a robust sponsorship platform that allows companies to showcase their commitment and support to ocean health while simultaneously reaching the sailing, boating and marine market. At the end of June, Sailors for the Sea traveled to the Green Sports Alliance (GSA) Summit in Sacramento and received the GSA’s Environmental Innovator of the Year Award for the Clean Regattas program. Clean Regattas is the only sustainability certification for water-based events and over 1,000 regattas have used our program. In addition, the GSA was an amazing learning platform for us as we saw how a variety of companies are developing and integrating sustainability-specific programs into their overall marketing and business plans. In terms of partnership categories, beyond sailing, boating and auto, we’re also working on the luxury and financial services categories as our demographics are in line with theirs, and many brands within those categories have sponsored sailing and boating initiatives in the past.
 

Sailors for the Sea’s Caribbean Representative, Renata Goodridge installs a water filling station at Antigua Sailing Week. By supplying water stations, regatta organizers are able to greatly cut down on the single-use plastic water bottles as part of the Clean Regattas program. (Photo credit: Sailors for the Sea)

 
GSB: What about brands in categories that have, shall we say, a green tint? I’m thinking of the Patagonias of the world, the Unilevers.
CT: Absolutely. Corporations that are walking the green walk need trusted, powerful outlets through which to talk the green talk to their key prospects. We can help. And we are trusted — Sailors for the Sea is the only non-profit organization that focuses solely on the boating and sailing communities to engage them in ocean conservation. And those communities are sizable.
GSB: I love it! A trusted voice and a great audience fit for many categories. I know you just started but have you landed any partners?
CT: I’m proud to say we have our first two corporate sponsors on board, MJM Yachts and Helly Hansen – Newport. With both companies, we offer a connection to the boating community that also ties in environmental stewardship and demonstrates their support for ocean health.
GSB: That’s great to hear, as I know that sponsorships are generally not quick sells. I hope and suspect that non-maritime companies — like financial services and auto — will take notice and will be next to come on board.
 
DONICA SHOUSE PADDLE BOARDS FOR THE PLANET
GreenSportsBlog has anointed several environmentally-minded athletes “eco-athletes”. But we’ve never come across an athlete who uses that term to describe her/himself.
Until now.
In an August 17 interview in SUP Magazine, the journal that covers “everything related to stand-up paddling,” Donica Shouse told Rebecca Parsons that she is indeed an “eco-athlete” who “draws joy from competition, but above all else she paddles for the planet.” Shouse walks the green walk as she “rides solely for eco-conscious companies, adheres to a plant-based diet, and runs a sustainably minded company alongside her husband.”
You couldn’t script a better path to eco-athlete-dom. Shouse, who grew up in Oregon, told SUP that she her family had a beach cabin where she learned to surf. And, by college, “I was active in Surfrider and elected surf club president at Oregon State where I got my first taste of environmentalism and the effects of our choices. I graduated with a B.S in Natural Resource Education and minor in Environmental Science. All my favorite things growing up fit perfectly into my love of surfing and protecting the ocean.”
Shouse visited Hawaii in 2003 and has never left, marrying her husband Abraham. They started Paddle Hawaii in their backyard.
 

Donica Shouse, paddling for the planet in Hawaii (Photo credit: Abraham Shouse)

 
More from the Sup Magazine interview: “My husband now has a wood shop in Kona. He recently partnered with Sustainable Surf to certify each piece as part of the eco board project. We hand harvest bamboo shafts and then Abraham crafts them into functional art—paddles, surfboards, skateboards and more. Paddle Hawaii has become an umbrella that also includes our photo/ video business, Star Shot Media. We have a ton of fun capturing peoples’ special moments, be that in love, adventure, or both.
 

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