Surfers' hope for wave of support for environmental project

Brendan and Justin Appold's business, Sustainable Chillin, began gestating two summers ago after a day they spent surfing at Gilgo Beach. Their concept was to promote a couple simple gestures: Leave the beach a better place by picking up a piece of trash, and spread the word with social media. But in the end, that wasn't enough.

Theirs is a start-up with a grand mission: Revolutionize the way people think about their relationship with the natural world.

The two Islip brothers decided to blast their environmental message with organic cotton T-shirts and a YouTube video. Now Sustainable Chillin sells T-shirts with four designs illustrating ways to live an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.

Part of each sale is donated to plant a tree somewhere in the world and to support a nonprofit entrepreneurial program in Peru. Sustainable Chillin has purchased 115 trees so far, according to mokugift, a website that partners with the United Nations Environment Program's Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign.

Hoping to generate some viral marketing, the brothers are releasing a commercial video on YouTube today, complete with a Jesus-like figure riding a four-person tandem bike - leading the way to a greener world.

"As a surfer, you are kind of thought of in a lot of ways as a trendsetter, so we're in an awesome position," said Justin Appold, 19, a sophomore at Boston College. "Not a lot of people in the industry have access to the younger generation and a hip generation, and I really think we are going to speak to them."

Business with a mission

The brothers, who are Islip High School graduates, have made environmental sustainability the focus of their studies. Justin is studying political science and environmental geoscience and Brendan, 22, is at Stanford University pursuing a master's degree in earth systems with a concentration in entrepreneurship and creative writing.

They funded the business with savings from summer jobs as waiters, and the enterprise evolved like so many start-ups: with continual research and trial and error. They investigated T-shirt companies to make sure potential suppliers were really using organically grown cotton and didn't run sweatshops.

With each T-shirt sold they include a flier with information about how to recycle, consume responsibly, preserve nature and use energy more efficiently. The designs were printed on the T-shirts by a Lindenhurst printer who uses inks free of lead and phthalates, a compound that advocacy groups have said is linked to adverse health effects. And the pair used 100-percent post-recycled paper for the flier and biodegradable sheet protectors to cover the fliers. The shirts have been selling well at several Long Island shops and online, the brothers and store owners said.

"You have to do all kinds of research as to which one material is going to be best in terms of the environment," Justin said. "That's a challenge as an entrepreneur."

But the brothers also acknowledge they were fortunate to receive help from friends and even strangers. The T-shirt designs were created by two high school friends - Emily Grasso, now a freshman at California College of the Arts, and Erin Riordan, a sophomore at Purchase College of the State University of New York. Another friend helped design the website.

Local support

Nations Cycle, a Hempstead motorcycle shop, put together two tandem bicycles, which would become the central piece for the video. And, they noted, they were especially fortunate to find Jacob Sillman, a New York University film student, who produced and directed the upcoming YouTube video.

"This literally is probably the craziest shoot I've ever done in my life," said Sillman, 20, of Manhattan, later adding: "Pretty much the experience affirmed for me that if I can direct, produce, write and shoot and direct photography and control all of those people on the set, I probably have the ability to direct something. It was a test."

For starters, the shoot was rescheduled three times - for reasons including weather, a missing actor and an incomplete tandem bike. When they did begin filming, on a cul-de-sac in Islip Terrace, they aroused the ire of residents over the bathing suits worn by some of the cast members and the possibility that homes could appear on camera. The film crew managed to make a getaway, but the next obstacle occurred when Sillman received a call that one of the actors had gone fishing and would not return.

Those mishaps were countered by some divine intervention, Sillman said. The filmmakers knocked on doors asking complete strangers for help. One loaned him his Hummer and the other, his Prius. The owner of a Brightwaters mansion agreed to let them film on her front lawn, and another man allowed them to film his Islip solar-paneled home. And they managed to shoot one of the most difficult scenes - that of the Jesus character riding the tandem bike against traffic on the Robert Moses Bridge - with the sun rising in the background.

"The reason I stuck with it is because I believe in the idea of it, and there was so much heart to it," Sillman said. "I saw in Justin and Brendan that they were sincere, and I saw the potential of the project."

Sillman's hope is the same as Brendan and Justin's: that the video will attract an audience of viewers who decide it's time to get on the bike of sustainable living.