Victoria
New South Wales
South Australia
Queensland
Offset My Gear
Noosa Festival of Surfing (NFOS) is dedicated to reducing its energy consumption and combating climate change by lowering emissions. Ecovantage is proud to support the festival to become a certified carbon-neutral event through Climate Active.
Now it’s your turn to do your bit – purchase an OMG Credit and make your board carbon neutral too!
What is OMG?
Offset My Gear (OMG) is a new initiative from Ecovantage, offering surfers and other eco-conscious Australians the opportunity to reset the carbon footprint of their gear – making it carbon neutral. This is done through the purchase of OMG Credits which are carbon offsets from SeaTrees by Sustainable Surf.
To launch OMG @ NFOS, we are offering OMG Credits for surfboards only.
How does it work?
- Select your surfboard, or the closest comparable board, from the four options. The four most common surfboards have been chosen and their carbon footprints have been measured – more on that below.
- Complete the form and enter your payment details via the secure online portal.
- You will receive an email containing your official OMG Certificate.
- Show your OMG Certificate at the NFOS merchandise tent to claim your limited OMG Token.
- Get back out in the water and rip it up, knowing your board is now carbon neutral.
- Plant the seed about your carbon neutral board with your mates, then tear, share and plant the OMG Token to grow your own herbs.
How did we calculate the carbon footprint of each board?
We didn’t have to! The amazing team at Wavechanger, in conjunction with Carbon Halo, put together a fascinating study in 2022, The Carbon Cost of Surfboards. This study analysed the emissions across the entire surfboard lifecycle and calculated their carbon footprint.
Each calculation factors in the materials used and their embodied energy, the construction method, the distribution (packing and transportation), the usage and lifetime maintenance, and finally the waste and disposal factors.
Where do the carbon offsets come from?
OMG Credits are made up of carbon offsets purchased from SeaTrees by Sustainable Surf. SeaTrees directly supports communities and scientists who protect and regenerate blue carbon coastal ecosystems which can be up to 5-10X more effective than rainforests at removing carbon from the air. This work includes planting mangrove trees, restoring kelp forests, coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and conserving coastal watersheds.
At NFOS, we are supporting the Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project which stretches from the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia down to the Gulf of Thailand. This incredible watershed is one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots and drains into one of Southeast Asia’s largest mangrove forests, located in the Koh Kong estuary.
Together with the local community, SeaTrees is working to protect 497,000 hectares of this critical coastal watershed. The Southern Cardamom Project is designed to promote climate change mitigation and adaptation, maintain biodiversity and create alternative livelihoods under the United Nations REDD+ scheme. The project is part of the Indo-Burma Hotspot, one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots, and is a critical watershed for the Gulf of Thailand, with a mosaic of habitats from dense evergreen and pine forests on its ridge tops to lowland melaleuca wetlands, flooded grasslands, lakes and coastal mangroves in its lowlands.