Surfing competition in Hawaii accomplishes zero carbon emissions
During the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, event organisers celebrated sustainability by managing to deliver a zero carbon emissions event while raising awareness about oceans protection among surfers and visitors.
The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is a three-event series taking place at Haleiwa, Sunset, and the Banzai Pipeline beaches in Hawaii, attracting an average of 25,000 visitors on competition days putting significant environmental stress on the beaches.
Against this challenge, Vans partnered with Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, an environmental organisation dedicated to improving consumer behaviour to tackle ocean pollution. They launched a comprehensive sustainability initiative to alleviate the carbon footprint of the event and made sure that visitors do not leave a negative environmental impact in the area.
Kim Matsoukas, the Senior Manager for Sustainability and Social Responsibility for Vans, said: “As surfers and people who like watching surfing, it’s our responsibility to protect the beautiful ocean that we use. Our goal is always to leave no footprint behind”.
“If we want to maintain the good relationship we have with the community, we should really think about how we show up”, she added.
During the event, the organisers set up water filling stations banning the sale of single-use plastic water bottles in order to minimise plastic waste. In addition, all on-site catering and sanctioned food trucks were obliged to use compostable plates and utensils.
Mrs Matsoukas explained that for the past 5 years the Triple Crown tournament has managed to be carbon neutral. At the end of every event, the sustainability team measures the total carbon footprint, including travel of athletes and freight, food production and on-site energy consumption. It then purchases verified carbon credits to offset 100 percent of that footprint.
Approximately 70 percent of all three events were powered by biodiesel, produced from locally sourced cooking oil collected from restaurants. However, the most impressive part of the sustainability initiative is the full-scale waste management system.
Throughout the beaches, the team had placed clearly labelled bins to encourage visitors to recycle and compost their waste.
Kahi Pacarro, Executive Director of Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, said: “On finals day, you can’t even walk around the beach. It’s nonstop emptying bags and putting in new bags into the bins”.
The hard work did pay off though, as the organisers managed to divert 65 percent of the overall waste created by three events from landfill- a figure which in 2013 was a mere 29 percent.
The compostable material is used as a fertiliser for local farms, creating an excellent example of how waste can be turned into a valuable resource elsewhere.
Mr Pacarro stressed that such initiatives, although extremely important, are not sufficient to tackle the marine pollution problems, pointing that more events need to bring the message of ocean health to more people.
“The solution isn’t just to clean up the beaches. That’s reactive. We need better consumer behaviour, better producer responsibility”, he added.