The EcoSurf Project

The EcoSurf Project (ESP) is a non-profit organization set up to help create a sustainable, environmentally friendly, socially responsible future for surfing and related surf sports such as windsurfing and kitesurfing.

The EcoSurf Project exists because of the gap between surfing's environmentally friendly image and the actual state of the industry and the consumers within it.

Surfers get through around three quarters of a million boards a year-only a tiny percentage of which are made from sustainable, biodegradable or even recyclable materials.

Surf wear, a global fashion phenomenon of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, is still for the most part produced from materials grown with huge amounts of pesticides, in poor countries where labor is cheap and working conditions are poor at best.

Surfers often take surf trips, traveling hundreds of miles by plane, with little or no thought for the damage to the atmosphere caused by the huge amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases produced by each flight.

The EcoSurf Project is looking to provide information about and find solutions to the environmental contradictions that exist in surfing today, and thus help ensure that surfing and surf sports will have a sustainable, environmentally friendly future.

The organization’s vision is of a surf industry that places a strong emphasis on environmental impact reduction, with surfboards, clothing and other related items being made from natural, biodegradable and organically grown materials; an industry that is an example to all others in the world, with businesses run according to their own strict environmental and social codes of practice; an industry driven by demand from environmentally aware, informed consumers, who are knowledgeable about the eco-friendly alternatives to conventional surf products and services available to them.

To achieve its mission the organization highlights three aims;

• To raise awareness amongst surfers of the impact that they have on the environment through the products they use, the trips they take and the lifestyle decisions they make.

• To help develop, promote, and encourage the production of eco-friendly alternatives to the currently available surf products (such as boards and clothing).

• To provide information, support and publicity to companies in the industry who are looking to move towards a more sustainable way of doing business.

To learn more about the Ecosurf Project, see the web site at;
www.ecosurfproject.org
Source: The EcoSurf Project (www.ecosurfproject.org)

LINK :
The EcoSurf Project