Level One

ECOBOARD Level One makes it easy for any board builder to get started making ECOBOARDS. By using one Qualified Material (core or resin), a board will have a significant reduction in environmental footprint without affecting performance, durability, or quality.

A Qualified Material must meet at least one of the following requirements:

• Plant-based, low to zero VOC resin with at least 19% bio-carbon content in the fully cured resin (the sum of all component parts)
• Core with at least 25% recycled or plant-based content, or wood constituting at least 50% of the core by weight

Further information about getting listed as a Qualified Material can be found in the ECOBOARD Project Program Guidelines.

Gold Level

Informed by Sustainable Surf’s ECOBOARD lifecycle assessment, ECOBOARD Gold Level rewards the top sustainable surfboards and surfboard producers – those with the greatest environmental impact reduction.

To qualify as a material specific to the Gold Level designation, a material must meet the following requirements:

• Has been the subject of a lifecycle assessment (LCA) that has been undertaken by an independent third party LCA practitioner. The LCA should incorporate impact indicators relevant to the ECOBOARD Project’s focus areas – carbon footprint, renewable/recycled/up-cycled inputs and reduced toxicity
• Plant-based, low to zero VOC resin with at least 25% bio-carbon content and has received USDA Bio-Preferred certification for the fully cured resin (the sum of all component parts)
• Core with at least 25% recycled or plant-based content, or wood constituting at least 50% of the core by weight
• Demonstrate that qualifying material inputs are sourced from a sustainably managed supply chain

Wooden boards that require little to no resin and/or fiberglass in their manufacture (e.g. an alaia made from FSC Certified paulownia), produced by manufacturers that have been audited and have met the requirements of the Gold Level designation, also qualify as Gold Level boards.

Further information about getting listed as a Qualified Material specific to the Gold Level designation can be found in the ECOBOARD Project Program Guidelines.

Qualified Materials are currently focused on resins and cores (blanks). Our research shows that these two elements can provide the greatest environmental and worker health benefits. Of course, we encourage all sustainability improvements in boards and are always stoked to hear from people supplying and using new innovations in material sustainability.

Want to know more? Contact us here.