Can a Snowboard be Green?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01. 2.09
Mike Olson and Pete Saari, founders of Mervin Manufacturing. Image: Annette Veihelmann
Can a snowboard be green, or is that an oxymoron like a hybrid Hummer? As was noted previously, a sport where you a) drive two hours, b) get electrically winched up a hill to c) slide down artificial snow, d) repeat is questionable, but as an avid shredder (or as they used to derogate us grownups, "grays on trays") I will take anything I can get. Like Burton's new Eco Nico, which the New York Times tells us is:
Burton Eco Nico
Fashioned from a startlingly simple palette of materials — a Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood core, a lacquer-free top sheet, 90-percent recycled steel edges, 100-percent recycled sidewalls and a 50-percent recycled base — the Eco Nico, said Todd King, Burton’s snowboard business unit director, “is the greenest of the green, the most sustainable board that we’ve ever made.”
Alex Warburton of Salomon (which I ride) explains the attraction:
“Snowboarders are attached to the natural world,” he said. “They are going to be more apt to buy something that he or she feels is ecologically better for the planet. And if more sales are determined by how green you are, then you’re going to have everybody doing it.”
Right. One could say that nothing is going to make the sport sustainable, it just generates too much carbon, but Bob Carlson of Arbor makes a good point:
“To snowboard, we need snow. That simple premise should be driving everybody toward not just flagship boards, but greening everything they do.”
New York Times
More on Snowboards in TreeHugger:
Q&A. Non-Nasty Snowboard Waxes?
Arbor: Snowboards with a touch of Treehugger
Indigo Bamboo Snowboard
Arbor Snowboards Take to Bamboo with Ardour
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Green Glossary: Green Power
- Green Glossary: Clean Coal
- So Long 2008, and Thanks for All the Posts
- Rent A Hybrid Car the Next Time You Travel
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NYC's Tekserve Holding 3rd Annual e-Waste Recycling Event
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Lloyd: Thanks for the plug (sort of) yesterday. ;-)
Nice to hear you're a snowboarder. Max Gladwell founder Rob Reed wrote a book on the topic some years ago: http://www.amazon.com/Way-Snowboarder-Rob-Reed/dp/0810959399/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230918909&sr=8-1
Happy New Year!
As someone who began riding in 1987 on a Burton Cruiser 165 w/Darth Vader bindings, I can say that skairea riding is for the weak and can never be anything but a huge carbon puke every time you go.
So if you want some real riding which just also happens to be much less of a carbon puke, take the snow shoes and hike the back county. Not for noobs, not for weekend warrior goons, but for anyone who has moderate riding ability and the desire to earn that untracked descent. Bring a GPS, cell, and well stocked Camel Back variant, and assume something bad will happen which will result in you spending the night out there.
You'll never look at those horrid Ellis Island lift lines the same way again.
What? How can you show a picture of LIB tech boards and not cover their green efforts? Here's the plug:
http://www.lib-tech.com/tech/environMental.html