Surfdome Launches Sustainable Tourism Competition With Stoke Certified

Surfdome has partnered with STOKE certified to launch a unique competition which will see two lucky winners head to Harana Surf Resort for seven nights with a sustainable gear package. This competition aims to promote sustainable tourism and help find greener alternatives to travel.

A 7-night trip to the Harana Surf Resort is on offer for the winners.

The concept of sustainable tourism is nothing new. A plethora of offsetting schemes and sustainable resorts have been around for decades promoting ‘eco-tourism’, creating positive change. The World Surf League (WSL) has even recently acknowledged its carbon footprint and efforts to offset it through initiatives such as coral planting in the latest WSL Pure campaign, ‘Stop Trashing Waves’ which states “Every plane ride has a hidden cost, sending CO2 into the air and warming our oceans. That’s why we’re reinvesting the cost of our tour’s carbon footprint into projects that safeguard marine life.”

However, the mainstream surf media and brands are still yet to widely acknowledge the impact of promoting worldwide tourism and products to consumers – knowing the outcome will result in the consumer buying an item such as a bikini or a 6mm wetsuit to stay in accommodation in a far-flung destination advertised to them. Not many promote staying local and buying quality sustainably gear that lasts. In reality, there is the opportunity to travel and consume in a far more sustainable manner. But thankfully, it’s not as black and white as choosing between staying locally with a dated kit and limiting your environmental impact or travelling to exotic destinations with a new wardrobe every time. There are ways we can consume and travel in a more sustainable way, Surfdome is using its platform to address both of these challenges.

Surfdome is using its platform to promote ways we can consume and travel sustainably.

Providing a Solution
In many ways, travel has been action sport’s dirty secret. Surf, Snow, and Skate competitions promote worldwide events, and businesses market products to sell to consumers off the back of them. In an effort to raise awareness of this issue and provide their audience with a sustainable alternative for travel, Surfdome has teamed up with STOKE (Sustainable Tourism & Outdoors Kit for Evaluation) by providing a competition to show how trips can be taken more sustainably. The trip includes offsetting of flights (flights not provided), a 7-night stay for two at the STOKE Certified Harana Surf Resort in the Philippines, and a sustainable gear package. Showing how an incredible trip and all the gear you need for it can be chosen in an earth-conscious manner.

Harana Surf Resort on Siargao Island—home to the beloved Cloud 9 break and named Best Island by Conde Nast Traveler in 2018—is a sustainably constructed resort that offsets its greenhouse gas emissions (produced by generators and staff travel), has a waste management programme and advocates for a plastic-free Siargao, partners with local NGOs for mangrove planting, and also sponsors teachers in the community who incentivise local groms to learn and surf. Resulting in the resort becoming the first STOKE Certified surf tourism operator in the Philippines.

The sustainably constructed Harana Surf Resort is the first STOKE Certified surf tourism operator in the Philippines.

The competition combines the holiday prize with one of the world’s most sustainable commercially available surfboards and a gear package selected from Surfdome’s Sustainable Gear Listing. A flagship product included in the prize giveaway by Surfdome is the Maluku Shake Eco Gold. The board reaches Sustainable Surf’s Ecoboard Gold standard and is made using bio-resin and a recycled Marko Foam blank. This means it has reduced greenhouse gas emissions in its production and also less waste (as any leftover foam can be recycled).

Environmental Collaboration
STOKE is the world’s first sustainability accreditation made specifically for surf and mountain destinations and events. STOKE enables surfers to duck dive the greenwash (false sustainability claims) by providing a third-party verified seal of approval for each of its certified members. A STOKE certification at one of three levels, (Certified, Sustainable, and Best Practice) gives instant backing to any claims surrounding (amongst many other factors) community development, waste management, renewable energy, fair labour, biodiversity conservation, authentic cultural experiences, and carbon offsetting. As mentioned earlier, the WSL is committed to offsetting its carbon footprint. STOKE is also managing the WSL’s offset program, by calculating the WSL emissions and matching them to a portfolio of offset projects. Helping further carbon offsetting in the mainstream surf media.

The Maluku surfboard is one of the flagship sustainable Surfdome products.

Surfdome is helping to raise awareness with their customers and wider audience for STOKE through the competition and by promoting the STOKE accreditation.

Surfdome’s Core Market Executive, Harry Jellicoe commented: “We have already started shifting our customers’ awareness to more sustainable alternatives by providing a Sustainable Gear Listing for products. This allows customers to search through sustainable criteria by categories or features, such as biodegradable, fairtrade or organic. Providing a sustainable product alternative has been a resounding success with customers and brands alike. As such we thought by creating an activation with STOKE and raising awareness on sustainable tourism, we will help highlight sustainable alternatives for all our customers looking to travel or take our products on trips.”

To find out more information on STOKE Certified destinations, Harana Surf Resort, and the giveaway follow the link to Surfdome’s Facebook competition HERE