A First Year of Success For The Environmental Action Partners.
The International Canoe Federation and Starboard plant almost 8,000 mangrove trees, coming together in their first year of environmental action. Promptly accelerating their long term partnership actions by planting to absorb emissions from chosen ICF events in 2021.
How Are They Going Carbon Positive?
Starboard and the International Canoe Federation agreed to make all World Championship events at least carbon neutral. Further efforts were put in place for the ICF SUP World Championships in Hungary. With Starboard being core to the SUP industry the event will become 10 times carbon positive. Consequently, travel from the athletes, coaches, committee members, event staff & volunteers released a total of 400 tonnes of CO2. Resulting in over 4000 mangroves being planted for this event. In contrast, an additional 3,600 mangroves will offset the emissions from Flat and White water ICF events.
Calculations
Through collaboration, the International Canoe Federation and Starboard calculated the carbon footprint from the selected event’s travel. Additionally, data for travel from air, road, rail and sea travel was fed into Carbon Footprint UK’s carbon footprint calculator.
A Proud Moment
“Thanks to the futuristic leadership at ICF, watersports can become an activating voice in environmental protection,” “Next is perhaps to get all sports on board and turn the tide on deforestation to rather see reforestation as the trend. How about a 10 x Climate Positive Paris 2024, creating a powerful environmental protection platform?”
~ Svein Rasmussen, Starboard CEO
“It was important that canoe sports around the world play their part in preserving the environment that means so much to them“… “All over the world our canoeing family are constantly in contact with different ecosystems,” … “They get to see first-hand the pressures being placed on these environments. They are passionate about protecting our waterways, and it is our responsibility as sporting leaders to lead by example.”…“By partnering with leading climate activists like Starboard, we’re in a unique position to make an impact. We are already working to make our major events carbon neutral. This is just the first step. We owe it to our athletes, and future generations.“
~ Thomas Konietzko, ICF President
The Future for the International Canoe Federation and Starboard
Above all, Starboard is proud to be working with the International Canoe Federation to scale up its partnership this year. Especially the scaling up of offsetting all major events for the whole international season. Consequently, we are implementing our learnings and trying different data collection methods. As a result, accuracy will increase.
Furthermore, ICF is implementing actions toward reducing waste, composting and sourcing lower impact materials for each event.
Read the full International Canoe Federation and Starboard Carbon Footprint report here.
