“Don’t destroy what you came to enjoy!” – credo of the Quiksilver Foundation

We write the year 2010 and only very few of the organizers, media or riders came by train and public transportation – among them Kjersti Buaas and Chanelle Sladics. The North Americans and riders from other continents had to take long-haul flights. Food was mostly not organic; overheated hotel rooms and diesel-guzzling snowcats far from energy efficient.

At least no cars had to be used for the duration of the event as hotels, snow park and parties were all walking distance from anyone’s accommodation. After all there were some first very important steps towards a greener Roxy Chicken Jam. It’s called going carbon neutral! And it’s about taking initiative and starting somewhere.

And that’s what the Roxy Chicken Jam 2010 was all about! It was one of the first carbon neutral boardsport events in Europe. Recent major events that have taken responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions include: the 2007 Academy Awards, 2006 FIFA World Cup Soccer, and the Dave Matthews Band concert tour. The environmental leadership demonstrated by these events is helping to transform the event industry, with green initiatives quickly becoming an expected part of holding an event. Let’s hope the snowboarding industry – highly dependent on the earth’s climate – starts leading by example.

Austrian event organizer Matthias Hofmann went down this alternative road and offset all carbon emissions by buying into a project called SRARFI – Sudden Rush Atlantic Rainforest Institute. The Brazilian company was founded by Swiss event announcer and Sudden Rush owner Chris Bachmann in 2005 and is supported by ambassadors like Nicolas Mueller and Terje Haakonsen. Nicolas himself owns 800m² of Atlantic rainforest to even out his job-related travels around the world.

Goal of the SuddenRush Atlantic Rainforest Institution (SRARFI) is to create an ecological corridor near Itacare, Brazil

Here is why Maritxu Darrigrand, Marketing Director at Roxy, now in also charge of sustainability at the company, thought SRARFI was the right organization to work with:

“It was good, cause we already had been in contact regarding another Quiksilver Foundation project, which is about forest reservation in France, but back then we decided to work with an organization called “Coeur de Forêt”.

But Matt (Hofmann) asked us to think about the “Atlantic Rainforest Foundation” again – and we did – and after all it’s even better, because it’s connected to our world – boardriding – Terje is involved for example. We know these guys and we know our money is in good hands. Here it’s not used to partly pay for a big office in New York and stuff like that. We have to be careful that the organizations or associations we give our funds to do the right thing.

It’s good to not put all your energy in the same one. It’s good to split up – we do a lot of other things, too. I hope with positive effects.”

The event’s footprint was accurately calculated with the help of Climate Partner, one of the European market leaders. The produced 116 tons of CO₂ were compensated in co-operation with the Suddenrush Atlantic Rainforest Institution (SRAFRI) saving 1,500 square meters of rain forest in Brazil. One ton of CO₂ produced, can be absorbed within 75 years for the amount of € 42 which equals 13 m² of Atlantic Rainforest (Do the math – that would be € 4.950,00 out of the budget – a fairly small amount of money for an international 6Star snowboarding competition, attended by several 100 people, in relation to total spendings).

Event Organizer: Matthias Hofmann

Here is the full interview with Matthias Hofmann:

Why and when did you decide to make your event eco-friendly?

That was very short term. I was talking a lot with Drew, the former CEO of the TTR and a good friend – he pushed for it. And we decided to not wait any longer. As the climate conference in Copenhagen didn’t bring any results, we thought we lead by example. (Matt smiles)

Where do you see the benefits for the event in general?

Benefits are on all sides. First of all the nature and the local area around here is profiting the most. We produce less trash or barely any at the concert and the park venue, we try to minimize emissions as much as possible and only the ones that still can’t be avoided would be offset.

And it’s also a big benefit for the brand Roxy itself, because it’s just a good, positive message you attach to that normal message that you do a snowboard competition and that it’s fun, you know. It’s also good for the TTR at the end of the day, if more events start to become green, it’s a good thing for the organization and last but not least the main sponsor Swatch.

That’s out of question, and I hope more TTR events will be picking this up.

What about the disadvantages?

Well, you know, natural resources like air, water and soil, have been free so far, but this can’t be the standard in the future as negative external effects keep messing up our system. And it’s still not calculated within our entire monetary and value system. If companies do something, they use resources that are owned by everyone on this planet. There are no real disadvantages. If you play you pay, and that’s how it is.

And if you play harder and more, you should pay more. That’s not negative, that should be natural.

How are you doing your emissions assessment? Who does it?

I chose a 2-way system. First of all I am working with Climate Partner, they are offsetting the soccer European Championships or the Austrian Airlines, they are more or less the official offsetter for the republic of Austria. It can’t get more official. They are very precise and very experienced in this. So I went there, did the calculations with them and on top of the result we added 15% safety cushion to account for smaller, less tangible things.

And then, because I didn’t really the idea to give the money to an organization I don’t know, and nobody here knows, I chose the Rainforest Project from Chris Bachmann to offset it. Because people like Nicolas Mueller, Terje Haakonsen, Drew Stevenson, and more that come from the boardsports world are behind it and are driving the project.

So in a nutshell: Do your calculations precisely with a good partner (e.g. Climate Partner), which is a global company, and then choose an offset project that people can connect with and you can rely on. That’s a big part of it, cause then you tell the kids: Look at this – it’s cool! That’s the mission that we have. So take it on and don’t communicate only dry and boring, but make it cool and show them that it’s a lot of cool people standing behind that idea. (and it’s worth to join the cause.)

It would be nice if more events follow your footsteps and the whole Tour becomes greener. The Arctic Challenge is a leading example with their Norwegian certification (Miljøfyrtårn Foundation), which is a pretty high standard and they are trying to get the ISO certification.

Yeah, I am also talking to Marco (Sampaoli), the head of the WSF and organizer of the World Rookie Fest, who wants to do it now with his rookie event and maybe he is approaching the whole WSF to do that. I think it’s really important. The Federations also play a very important role, cause if they say: Hey guys, if you go green and you fulfill certain standards, avoid trash and emissions, and the more you do and offset, we reduce the membership fee for your event. And the carbon offsetting could be covered by a sponsor. There are a lot of options how to build motivation for event organizers.

Develop this thought further – we could work towards a green standard in TTR and WSF, a minimum goal or requirement understandable and achievable on all star levels. It would be interesting for mainstream media to communicate and for the general public to understand that we are working towards the goal to produce greener events – and lead by example.

I think we should sit together and work out standards that make sense for snowboard events. We could potentially do this at the General Assembly. If you make one meeting about sustainability, and develop a concept, where everybody is contributing, then you could really end up with something that makes sense. Cause then you produce different ideas, from different events, from different countries, and then we could set up a standard that suits our needs. And we don’t have to buy some expensive ISO certificate and you don’t have to go through bureaucracy that takes forever. I am not a big friend of that.

What are the officials doing? They are making the train more expensive than the car. And the same people want to tell me what I have to do and how to produce my event environmentally friendly. I don’t believe in that.

How did the media embrace your efforts?

The media echo was really good. We had newspapers like Sueddeutsche Zeitung, one of the biggest newspapers in Germany, then also a lot of special interest media and some other big newspapers. But we are also communicating what we are doing in the TV production and other channels That’s a very important point for us.

Is carbon neutrality a key part of the communication e.g. with a whole paragraph in the press releases?

Well, it’s not a key part. We are still a snowboarding event with a focus on sports performance. That’s why we are doing it. But it’s a very essential part because I think we, as snowboard event organizers, that reach young people in a credible way, can make them become more interested in what we are doing. We can package this message really cool so that the awareness of the kids starts growing. And that must be the goal…

In all the podcasts and TV Shows we are doing, we have interviews with people about the topic. Also we wanted to have Nicolas Mueller here to talk a little bit about his project, unfortunately he had to be at another event. So for sure, this is something we want to let people know.

Is the US chicken Jam also trying to create a carbon neutral event?

Not confirmed yet. (Editorial note: Matt and Roxy are working on making it happen.)

Do you think you can improve something for 2011?

Sure, this time it had been a very short-term decision. There is a lot you can do. I have the calculations now and I see that over 60% of everything we neutralized is caused by individual traffic. This means all the snow production and the stuff on the mountain venue, all of that produced less CO2 than all the travel by flights and car.

Here we can encourage people to rely more on public transportation. Maybe we can work on a cooperation with the ÖBB (Austrian train corporation) next year, so that every rider that comes to the Roxy Chicken Jam gets a voucher to travel free within Austria.

It’s a lot you can do. Reducing waste further is the easiest. If you use your brain for one minute you will see there is no waste if you do it right. Like using recyclable branding materials. We already talked to Roxy and we are working on improvements!

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So let’s hope the TTR Tour final will be carbon neutral as well! As Maritxu said: “Without offsetting both events to the rainforest we are not showing a real commitment.”

It is impossible to reduce our carbon emissions to zero, no matter how hard we try. But some events and athletes do their best to improve their footprint. The World Rookie Fest 2010, a snowboarding competition for riders below the age of 18, already followed the footsteps of the Chicken Jam. The 3Star WSF event has been voluntarily certified “climate neutral” by Climate Partner and over 140 tons of CO2 have been offset by credit for certificates of CO2 emitted from a local Italian biomass factory.

Biomass production site in Tirano, Italy

And the 6Star Oakley Arctic Challenge has already been environmentally certified with a Norwegian certificate at a very high level. We will have an interview with Henning Anderson from the Oakley Arctic Challenge here soon.

And to clarify this: I don’t think we need to rely solely on hiking 10 years from now – humanity has invented a lot of innovative transportation systems – we will manage to come up with one to keep on riding sustainably for sure!

If you want to read an entire interview about sustainability at Roxy and Quiksilver with Maritxu or learn more about how to make your event carbon neutral keep checking www.sustainabilityinactionsports.wordpress.com for updates.

Stay sideways – and think green!

Links & Sources:

Sudden Rush Atlantic Rainforest Institute: http://www.atlanticrainforest.org/

The Quiksilver Foundation: http://www.quiksilverfoundation.org/

David Suzuki Foundation: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_neutral_events.asp

Sustainability in Action Sports Blog: http://sustainabilityinactionsports.wordpress.com/

RCJ News Carbon Neutral: http://roxychickenjam.com/chickenjam10/blogEntry,62.en.html

Roxy Chicken Jam 2010: http://roxychickenjam.com/

TTR Roxy Chicken Jam Event Bio Page: http://www.ttrworldtour.com/events/season-0910/6star/roxy-chicken-jam-europe.html

World Rookie Fest 2010: http://www.worldsnowboardfederation.org/

Not only thousands of people in Kopenhagen care about our planet. You can also find initiatives and people who care among those many snowboard companies and riders out there. Beside Drew Stevenson and his Breath Foundation, also the Roxy Chicken Jam is making a strong effort to keep our planet the same as it is now. The event, a Swatch TTR World Snowboarding 6Star event, scheduled for 8th to 10th of January in the Austrian resort of Saalbach Hinterglemm has set out on a mission to add Carbon Neutrality to its cash prize of $50,000. Then first Woman’s event to pick up the mantle of adding a deep respect for the nature surrounding the event, they have teamed up with the Suddenrush Atlantic Rainforest Institute that already has other conscious internationally renown snowboarder ambassadors such as Terje Haakonsen(NOR) and Nicolas Mueller(SUI) representing the dire need for preservation of one of the worlds threatened biodiversity hotspots. Outside of setting an example for other events, the commitment from the Roxy Chicken Jam will ensure reforestation and preservation of forest for 100 years.

Read more on www.breathefoundation.org and www.roxy.com.

More detailed new on their effort are soon to follow in the blog section of www.ttrworldtour.com.

If you are interested in the topic, make sure not to miss Drew Stevenson’s movie that premieres in Zuerich this weekend:

Premiere Location: Riff Raff Cinema
Date: Saturday, 19th December
Time: 12:30
Entry: 10 CHF

For more premiere dates head to www.breathfoundation.org

He is back – and he is back to fight for a good cause. Drew Stevenson, ‘The Godfather’ of snowboarding, as some may call him, has been a huge force in the development of snowboarding.  He has been involved in the creation of both Onboard and Method magazines and played a huge role in the development of the TTR World Snowboard Tour.  In 2008, he left the TTR Tour to trade the snowy Alps for the surf rich paradise of Costa Rica, locking himself away whilst working on his latest project ‘Breathe’.

Here are only some information about his new project  taken from the info pack that is available for download on www.breathecostarica.com (new website going online beginning of January)

What is Breathe you ask?

Breathe is an organic concept born in the jungles of Costa Rica fusing music, activities, discourse, and inclusive participation aimed at sharpening focus on many social and ecological issues facing our future.

Time is short to address the enormity of different challenges facing the globe’s biosphere, natural resources and us as species. They are as big as they are diverse. The solutions are as clever as they are wide ranging. The first step in addressing a problem, is accepting there is a one.

Breathe challenges people to leave their regular surroundings and to re-immerse themselves with a isolated, vibrant, living, ecosystem. A chance to stop for a second. Take a deep breath. Interact, and re-examine our place on the planet from a completely different perspective.

In a remote jungle setting, Breathe promotes awareness through music, art, surfing, eco tours, yoga sessions, horse tours, offshore fishing, beach combing, local food & culture, workshops, documentary screenings and much more…
Put simply, Breathe offers a unique shared experience with like-minded people interested in change…

Set in the Sunset Hills, a 50,000 sqm property of mountain top virgin dry forest overlooking Playa Hermosa on the Pacific side of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. 

More information, program updates, accommodation and reference material
found at: www.breathecostarica.com

Direct Contact :

Drew Stevenson
Email: drew@rollinggoat.com
Skype: goatontherun

Last weekend many pilgrims of the snowboard industry flocked to Livigno/ Italy to see the messiah for his short come back to the scene. At the Source Industry Forum, Drew Stevenson – the godfather of Onboard, Method, TTR and all the party heads out there – received the Life Time Achievement Award for all he did for the sport that we all love so much.

Many many years ago – I guess some of the TTR interns weren’t even born back then – Mr. Stevenson came “from a land down under” to turn the European Snowboard market upside down. In 2008, he left the biz and rumors say that his time out in Hossegor inspired him write a book which then may already be doomed to become the first best seller ever written by a snowboarder – and probably the first and last book some riders may ever put onto their shelves: “The sheep that learned how to snowboard – an autobiography by Drew Stevenson”. Let’s hope the Costa Rican jungle inspires him as much as the beautiful European Alps have done up to now.

In Mickey’s Pub, after enduring trillions of power point slides with depressing facts and figures on the snowboarding market, we saw a video and photo presentation that made everybody cheer up again reminding us that money is not the only reason for all the hard work we are constantly putting into this sport: we do it because snowboarding is about friendship, fun and unforgettable powder turns. Funnily enough that the guy who made us recall these things was a modern interpretation of Jesus himself: under his long hair and beard only recognizable thanks to his Ästhetiker shirt and leather jacket.

In a time of stars making their come back over and over again, there is still a little hope left that Drew hasn’t yet left the scene for good.

Thanks again Drew for all you have done for snowboarding!

In typical TTR fashion, the crew was set up to begin the filming of Iouri Podladtchikov’s TTR video profile along with some TV content. Iouri was in house when suddenly there was some loud music coming from outside the interview room. Generally speaking, we don’t like it when stuff interferes. We opened the door and try to ask as politely as we can for the noise to decrease, but before we had a chance to stop anything, in comes TTR’s CEO Drew Stevenson along with Iouri’s musically talented brother Igor Podladtchikov! They gave us a quick sneak preview of the duet that was to take place later in the evening after the quarterpipe qualifications.

I’m going to just lay it out there though: Drew is not the best singer. But he is entertaining, as his duet with Igor in the riders’ tent didn’t seem to go on as planned with Drew forgetting his lines or simply just covering up the words on his lyric sheet with his thumb.

Nevetheless, Igor put on a great set with a couple covers of Outkast and Radiohead only after a few of his own original and unique tunes. Usually Igor plays with a full band supporting him but instead performed solo with just his voice and guitar. It was cool stuff and certainly kept in tune with the competition’s laid-back atmosphere. You can tell Igor has a natural gift for songwriting.

Igor’s music is also featured in a special story and music project put together by 7th Sky magazine. An eclectic pool of individual singers and songwriters, both well-known and unknown were given a mission to write a song based on one of 11 stories written by various people involved in snowboarding and other board sport industries. It’s an interesting concept that should not go unnoticed. Check out seventhsky.ch to read the stories and listen to the music.

For three days of hard training and drill exercises, young men and women were taught the most important things it takes to survive on the rough road to becoming a pro-snowboarder. Riding and shooting in the park, on free terrain as well as avalanche training was on the program during these days. In the evening, the menu was backcountry awareness theory, working with photographers, filmers, team managers and sponsors and interrupted by intervals of push ups and other humiliating activities.

Besides the group’s unconventional Australian leader, the following people were part of the drill team:

Mountain Guide and avalanche expert: Major T. Wolf

Infantryman: B. Hartweger

TTR intelligence officer (video): A. Juegelt

TTR intelligence officer (photo): F. Jaeger

Construction officer: 1st Lt. T.M.Marsh

Officer in charge: Infantry General M. Hofmann

In the end, all 12 privates passed the challenging tests and survived the drills. TTR and DC congratulate all participants of the Boot Camp 2007 and wish them good luck for their future winter missions: