Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/173871
FINALISTS BROCK ELLIOTT, PRESIDENT CAMPION MARINE KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA w hen asked why Campion Marine has invested so heavily in eco-friendly technology, company President Brock Elliott has a simple answer: "It's the right thing to do." From research into electric outboards to building with bioresins to improving recycling efforts, Campion has wholeheartedly embraced green practices under Elliott's leadership the last several years. "Our industry is not considered a real green industry," he said. "If we can do something, it's important to us, it's important to me." Campion's dive into green technology started simply enough when Ashland Composites contacted the company in 2008 to ask if Campion would build a boat using Ashland's new Envirez bioresins. Although a global company, Ashland has a plant in Kelowna, making Campion a natural partner for the venture. Campion agreed to build two boats with the soy- and corn-based resins, an 18-foot Chase 550 and a 21.5-foot Chase 600. "We built them and beat the hell out of them on Lake Okanagan," Elliott said. "We froze them in the winter, baked them in the hot summers. Two years of testing them and the boats were phenomenal with no issues at all." The success of those boats prompted Campion to switch over completely to building all of its models with bioresins starting in 2010. At the same time, Mark Hayhoe, an Ontario business owner who was looking for an eco-friendly boat, heard about Campion's work with Envirez and contacted the company about building him a bioresin, biodiesel-powered boat. Using a modified Volvo engine, Campion was able to get him the boat he wanted. Although built as a one-off, it led Elliott to the important "a-ha" moment that completely changed Campion. On the way home from showing Hayhoe's boat at the 2010 Toronto International Boat Show, Elliott asked himself what if Campion applied the lean manufacturing methods it was already using to going green? 18 | Boating Industry | October 2013 P14x20-BI13OCT-MoversRoch.indd 18 sulted in numerous awards from industry groups and local officials, generating plenty of positive buzz. There have also been significant financial benefits for Campion. For example, the company undertook an aggressive recycling program, saving thousands of dollars a month in waste disposal fees. Earlier this year, the company installed new halogen lights in the lamination plant that, between tax credits and reduced energy costs, should also save thousands. Most recently, Campion entered into the electric outboard market when its dealer in Switzerland brought Florida-based ReGen Nautic to Elliott's attention. Starting with a Yamaha 150-hp gas-powered outboard, Campion and ReGen Nautic built the world's first 180-hp electric outboard, powering a Chase 550. Campion has delivered the boat to that Swiss dealer, but is, for now, putting wider – Brock Elliott, President production of the engine on hold. The key challenge is the battery life. For its tests, Campion got about two hours of run time off of the outboard, running at 30 to 50 mph. By the time he got back to Kelowna, Elliott With all of the research being done by auhad a new mission for his management team: tomakers and others into electric engines it's look at every step of our production process and only a matter of time before the tech is ready, decide if there's a better way to do it. Elliott said. "What's the first thing we do?" he said. "We "What the project did do was opened our bring the mold in from outside, get it to the right eyes up to the electric outboard motors to the temperature and we clean it. So the first thing point that I want one, that you'll want one," we're going to look at: When we clean that he said. "All of these very smart companies mold, are we doing it the greenest way?" are working on battery technology and when Campion started using different solvents, a they get a breakthrough, we'll be ready to go low-emission gel coat and a non-toxic flotation to the marketplace." foam, to name just a few changes. Elliott told Besides all of the obvious benefits, the emthe company's suppliers he wanted them to embracing of green technology at Campion has brace eco-friendly products and practices. Those also revitalized a workforce that couldn't were replaced by battered by the recession. other companies. "Because we're doing this, "Once you get on going we're getting more innovative green, and you're known for it, thinking going through all of people start bringing you more the factory, all of the employideas," Elliott said. "Every supees," Elliott said. "They're not plier that comes here knows » Monthly savings from sitting stagnant – they're comwe're green." Campion's recycling ing up with ideas." All of those efforts have re- "Once you get on going green, and you're known for it, people start bringing you more ideas." $3,500 program www.BoatingIndustry.com 9/5/13 11:37 AM