Vans professional surfing event prioritises sustainability

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, in partnership with Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii and WSL Hawaii, has placed sustainability and resource management at its heart for the fourth year.

The competition is the world’s series of professional surfing events, and runs from 12 November to 20 December in Hawaii.

The Vans Triple Crown aims at demonstrating its environmental leadership through education and social responsibility awareness.

The event minimises its environmental impact – marine plastic pollution, sea rise level, and ocean acidification.

Through its actions, the surfing competition wants to protect the environment of the area of the North Shore of Oahu as well as support the local community and its economy.

Like in previous years, Vans will release a report on the data and stories of sustainable actions related to the event.

Last year, during the first event of the Vans Triple Crown, The Hawaiian Pro, 12,461 plastic bottles were saved thanks to the implementation of the Flo Water refill stations on the beaches.

Clearly labelled bins will be available to encourage attendees to recycle, and all waste produced by the event will be recycled and composted as much as possible.

Sustainable Coastlines managed to recycle or compost 60 per cent of the waste produced during the 2014 competition.

Thanks to Pacific Biodiesel, the event will be powered by biodiesel fuel made in Hawaii from cooking oil which was collected from Turtle Bay Resort and local restaurants.

Public transportation is also available onsite to reduce the emissions of the event, and beach clean-ups are held every day.

In order to offset the rest of its emissions, Vans Triple Crown supports forest conservation and coral reeds and beach protection projects.

This topic will be covered further at Sustainable Innovation in Sport – a two day meeting bringing together stakeholders and influencers who are engendering positive environmental impacts through sport, on the 22-23 February 2017.  For more information and to register, visit the website by clicking here