You may be familiar with Next Level Apparel’s ECO collection of sustainably made T-shirts made from recycled water bottles. What you may not know, however, is the volunteer work Next Level does beyond providing the promo industry with environmentally friendly apparel.

“One of the things that we as a company put a lot of focus on is sustainability,” says Randy Hales, CEO of Next Level. “That was really the driving force behind the introduction of our ECO collection. We, as a manufacturer, believe we have a responsibility that goes way beyond providing great products, high quality and great service. We’re always looking for ways to go further in our initiatives around sustainability.”

That’s what takes us to Will Rogers State Beach in Los Angeles, where Next Level kicked off their first-ever beach cleanup effort.

Check out Next Level’s beach cleanup in this short video.

“We were really looking for a way to bring sustainability and Next Level’s identity together,” says Carly Gerstman, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Next Level. “Since we’re a company based in Southern California, this just made sense.”

For this project, Next Level partnered with the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental nonprofit dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves and beaches. As Surfrider has a local Los Angeles chapter and was founded not far over in Malibu, the joining of these two groups was a match made in SoCal heaven.

Not only was this volunteer day great for team bonding, Next Level employees were able to make a direct impact on the beaches in their area that very day. Despite the beaches appearing like they didn’t have too much garbage, the team was shocked to find that they collected 84 lbs. of trash that day! However, the benefits of a beach cleanup go beyond just picking up trash.

“We are going to be collecting and accounting for every single piece of trash that we find here today and inputting that into our database so we can push forward plastic pollution legislation at the local, state and federal level,” says Newara Brosnan-Faltas, L.A. Chapter Coordinator of the Surfrider Foundation.

“We’re very grateful to Next Level for sponsoring this cleanup. These are the exact kind of events that make our work at Surfrider Los Angeles possible,” Brosnan-Faltas continues. “We hope the volunteers leave energized, inspired by their collective effort and feeling like they really helped out.”

That’s certainly the case for Next Level, who looks forward to their next environmental effort so they can continue to “walk the walk” when it comes to sustainability.

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