The WSL Pledges To Be “Carbon Neutral” By The End Of 2019

The Championship Tour is a massive logistical undertaking that’s hard to comprehend when you’re kicking back watching the webcast from the comfort of your couch. To get the circus around the world for eight months of the year with all of the personnel and equipment takes a ton of work and puts its fair share of strain on the environment. The amount of jet fuel alone is considerable.

But WSL Pure, the environmental wing of the league, has just announced drastic steps to curtail its impact on the air, land and sea. They have pledged that by the end of 2019 the organization will be carbon neutral by “offsetting travel, business operations, and commuting emissions.”

The WSL has also pledged to “eliminate single-serve plastics from WSL Championship Tour and Big Wave Tour events by the end of 2019.”

The third pillar of their recent announcement is that they are also “committing to leaving every beach better than we found it.”

Activating around these newly announced pledges, the WSL is unrolling a social media campaign encouraging people to get on social media and make their own pledge as to how they’re helping the oceans. Don’t be surprised to see the hashtag #StopTrashingWaves start showing up more and more in your Instagram feeds in the coming days and weeks.

To get things rolling in the right direction, on June 15, International Surfing Day, WSL Pure and the Surfrider Foundation are teaming up to make a statement about the state of our oceans. They will be conducting organized paddle-outs at locations around the world. The same strategy has helped bring attention to the plight of the Great Australian Bight, so why not deploy it in other places that need some attention?

This does not at all appear to be a one-off environmental campaign that will come and go like the tide. This effort by WSL Pure is thorough and well thought out—and if they can pull it off it will be a good thing for everyone. It’s an idea that has teeth, meaning it isn’t just a hashtag, and that’s reassuring. It could set the standard for similar change throughout the sporting world.

By the end of the year, the WSL could potentially be the only global sports organization in the world with a carbon neutral footprint, which would be quite a feat considering how much travel it takes just to hop from Oz, to Bali, back to Oz and then over to Rio. 

All these buzz words and actions may seem cute in the easily offended ecosystem we currently inhabit. Make an effort and you’re a target but taking real steps towards making a difference in the environment is commendable. And, in plain terms, it means the sacrifice of those two finite things: time and money. Regardless of your opinion, these fuckers are sure working hard to do the right thing.