There used to be a sandy beach at San Clemente. It belongs to the ocean
now.
The Southern California town hosted the Rip Curl World Surf League
Finals
in September. WSL athletes and staff found all that remains of the once-iconic
San Clemente beaches is a meager strip of coastline fortified with riprap to
protect against rising sea levels, higher tides and storm surges.
By the end of the century, nearly
half of the world’s sandy
beaches are expected to be lost to erosion. Coral
reefs,
essential to the planet’s health and surfing alike, are projected to
decline
70-90 percent by 2050 if global warming isn’t limited to 1.5°C.
As the world’s premiere surfing organization, the WSL takes threats to surfing
personally. These dire threats to the ocean also align with WSL’s Three Pillars:
Plastics pollution, climate change and coastal restoration. As the ocean goes,
so goes humanity; and an unsurfable ocean means an uninhabitable planet. What’s
at stake is painfully demonstrated almost in real time by the disappearing
beaches of San Clemente.
“The ocean is our arena, it’s our office — many of us would describe it as
home,” Emily Hofer, Chief People and
Purpose Officer at WSL, told Sustainable Brands®. “We believe that the
future of surfing depends on the health of the ocean; and it’s our duty to
ensure that the ocean is protected for surfers to come.”
In 2021, WSL
launched
its global We Are One Ocean (WAOO)
initiative to protect and conserve surf ecosystems around the world through
coastal restoration, climate action and reducing plastic pollution. Over the
2022 Championship Tour (CT) season, WAOO collaborated with grassroots community
organizations, indigenous groups, surfers and a coalition of over 100
organizations to lead ocean protection and conservation initiatives at each stop
along the Tour. WAOO activations included replanting native coastal vegetation
in Hawaii, removing plastic pollution from Indonesian waterways, and
restoring coral reefs in Tahiti.
By the 2022 season close, the WSL says WAOO will have:
-
Reduced emissions by almost 50 percent from the 2018 baseline year;
-
Educated 35,000 global youth on cultural and environmental stewardship;
-
Removed 100 tons of plastic from Indonesian waterways;
-
Conserved almost 350,000 hectares of coastal land — including prime surf
ecosystems at Playa Hermosa, Costa
Rica
and Grajagan Bay, Java,
Indonesia
(famously known to those in the know as “G-Land”).
Leveraging sports for environmental action
WAOO leverages WSL’s outsized influence to educate and inspire surf fans and
athletes about ocean protection and conservation.
“Sports have the power to inspire hearts and minds,” Hofer said. “Anything
related to protecting the ocean or the earth is a really good way to leverage
sports and the inspirational power of sports.”
Water and winter
sports
provide a front-row seat to the effects of climate change and ecosystem
destruction; and stakeholders from both are mobilizing to protect the future of
their sports. Because it’s not about an unseen threat or far-off cause — but the
undeniable reality of a favorite glacier melting or a beach eroding out of
existence — sports can uniquely mobilize practitioners quickly and at scale.
"All big changes start with a single step," said WSL CT surfer and WSL
PURE ambassador Lakey
Peterson. "I believe in the
power of coming together and working together to create positive change. I think
it's the first step of what can really have a big impact globally."
The operational impacts of water sports
Whether based in Michigan or Indonesia, surfers go where the surf is up;
so, travel is the biggest environmental impact of the sport. WSL mitigates this
by only sending essential staff to events. For the unavoidable emissions
associated with travel, WSL offsets it with carbon-sequestration
projects
focused on repairing and restoring natural ecosystems and renewable energy
resources. WSL also partners with Stoke
Certified
to track and report the emissions footprint of every aspect of its operations,
from travel to office work. Stoke also helps WSL craft a portfolio of renewable
resources to offset its footprint.
Before WAOO, WSL launched PURE — a program with internal commitments to enhance
League sustainability
practices
— in 2016. Since 2018, WSL has reduced real emissions without offsets by 49
percent, thanks to a radical transformation in travel policy and staffing. The
League says it was responsible for over 16,000 tons of emissions from 2018-2021;
and all of them have been
offset with
nature-based climate solutions.
WSL has prohibited single-use products at its events since 2019. Inevitably,
there’s still some waste; and WSL works hard to align with the appropriate
operational partners for the best recycling and composting partnerships in each
region it operates.
More than a venue: Bringing in the community as well as the crowd
“One of the most important pieces is that we work very closely with communities
to select the grassroots organizations that really are working on things that
matter,” Hofer said. “Each project is different. That’s where we find it so
exciting. And yet they’re all having their own long-term impact in each market.”
WSL brings athletes into local activation projects — instilling on-ground
understanding and stakes in protecting a fragile ocean, and empowering famous
athletes to utilize their renown to inspire greater action at scale.
“Our athletes have a tremendous
voice,” Hofer said. “They’re so authentic and passionate about this work. Micro
grants and influencers shine a light on these grassroots organizations for our
fans around the world. This impact certainly goes beyond a single event, shining
light on [local projects] and amplifying their stories.”
As part of WAOO, WSL PURE
grants help support local non-profit work improving the health of global ocean
ecosystems and the people who depend on them.
WSL PURE grantees include cultural organizations such as Nā Kama
Kai and Native Like
Water — cultural organizations bringing
indigenous surf perspectives to youth — and conservation organizations including
ReGeneration Surf and Surf Conservation
Partnership,
working to protect and restore coastal ecosystems.
WSL understands that all of the coasts where its athletes get barreled are
steeped in indigenous wisdom and understanding — resources the planet needs now
more than ever.
“We try to integrate these native local practices to help members of our
programs to fully understand their heritage as stewards and how they might bring
these traditions back into 2022,” Hofer said.
Hofer ways WAOO will continue its activations at each stop along the 2023 CT
seasons, as well as support new grantees for greater impact on ocean protection
and restoration.
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Christian is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and outdoor junkie obsessed with the intersectionality between people and planet. He partners with brands and organizations with social and environmental impact at their core, assisting them in telling stories that change the world.
Published Dec 2, 2022 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET