In its ongoing commitment to protect the very playground that makes freestyle windsurfing possible, the Freestyle Pro Tour is excited to announce it will be planting 1000 mangroves to offset the entire 2023 season 4 times over. Together with sustainability partner Starboard, the FPT crew is working hard year-round to calculate and reduce all CO2 emissions that are inevitable as part of running a global windsurfing tour. Read more about those and other sustainability efforts and check out the full sustainability report below.
What we do
CO2
Throughout the season, the Freestyle Pro Tour meticulously collects all data related to the CO2 emissions of our events. All riders and crew share their detailed travel itineraries per event. Furthermore, data about electricity and fuel use is collected from event organisers to calculate the on-the-ground emissions as well. At the end of the season, Starboard calculates the total emissions and adds a 10% buffer to the calculations to account for any omissions. Finally, the total is multiplied by 4 and offset with 3 mangroves per tonne of CO2 emitted. Read the full methodology in the report attached below.
Thanks to collecting all travel information in the registration process, the FPT tries to align athletes together to ensure carpooling or gear transportation. Great examples include the 2023 EFPT Vieste. Riders collaborated to drive down together, drastically reducing emissions because of less flights as well as less cars driving down.
Sailors for the Sea Best Practices
The Freestyle Pro Tour has incorporated the Sailors for the Sea Best Practices list into the pre- event checklists. This set of 20 guidelines helps event organisers to reduce waste, emissions and pollution during their event. The FPT Sustainability officer also helps organisers wherever possible to reduce any barriers in incorporating those steps. At the end of the season, each event is submitted for certification to evaluate their sustainability efforts.
Lycra’s
Having to produce lycra’s for each separate event is a big cost as well as a waste considering riders often never use it again after an event. Since 2022, the FPT makes a set of custom Lycra’s that last a whole season and are used at each event. Apart from being a professional and unified look, this greatly reduces waste. Furthermore, by overseeing the lycra production it is made sure that high quality and recycled materials from the SEAQUAL Initiative are used.
Why Mangroves?
Mangroves are a species of tree that grow in densely packed forests around shorelines and estuaries in tropical and sub-tropical regions. But what makes them so special to us? Mangrove forests are classified as Blue Carbon ecosystems. This simply means that they are a community of organisms (ecosystem) located in or around the ocean (blue) which absorb CO2 (carbon). Blue Carbon ecosystems are some of the most effective at fighting climate change due to their amazing ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Starboard plants mangroves in partnership with Worldview International Foundation (WIF) in Myanmar. WIF currently operates 6 Verified Carbon Standard certified projects with record high 96% survival rates. But what is so special about Worldview International Foundation, and what contributes to their high survival rate, is their commitment to supporting sustainable development within local communities. Not only does WIF employ local people to plant and care for the forests it also supports the communities neighbouring the projects to ensure they feel the benefits of protecting the mangroves.
Make sure to read the in-depth story about Mangroves in our Environmental Impact Report.
Text and Graphic Credit: Freestyle Pro Tour
