The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
ACCIONA turned retired wind turbine blades into surfboards
Faced with fibreglass turbine blades headed to landfill, ACCIONA ground them into a particulate and made the world's first surfboard from recycled blades.
ACCIONA Energía · Draft Surf
the move
ACCIONA builds wind farms, and its retired turbine blades were the industry's recycling headache — huge fibreglass structures with no easy path off the landfill.
Rather than publish a sustainability claim, ACCIONA turned the waste into a product. It reduced a decommissioned blade to a fine particulate, then worked with surfboard maker Draft Surf and pro surfer Josh Kerr to build a performance board from it.
The board was tested at ACCIONA's Cathedral Rocks wind farm and debuted at an event in Sydney, where media and the public could ride it. It was a concrete proof that a hard-to-recycle material could be premium.
The surfboard was only the first product; the point was to open the flow of recycled turbine material to hundreds of businesses and individuals.
why it works
- A surfboard is a desirable object, making a sustainability point tangible rather than abstract.
- It gave the recycled material a performance story, not just an eco label.
- Surfers carry an identity as environmentalists, so the audience amplified the message.
- The project turned a cost (blade disposal) into a brand and circular-economy asset.
what transfers
A waste problem is easier to sell when the fix is a physical thing people already want. Turn the hardest-to-recycle material into the hero product of the audience you need to convince.
what came after
Turbine Made became an ongoing initiative rather than a stunt, with ACCIONA seeking partners to build the next range of products from recycled blade material. It positioned the company as turning a circular-economy commitment into a working product line, and gave other firms a model for reusing the material.
references
- DDB Melbourne, ACCIONA launch first Turbine Made surfboard
- From Wind To Wave: ACCIONA & DDB Melbourne Turn Retired Turbines Into World-First Surfboard
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