Over the past 15 years I have been researching what
sustainable development and sustainability mean and how these terms are
translated into real world programmes, initiatives and policies. I have done this at the United Nations, at
the national government level, local government, I’ve looked at the
sustainability of 2012 Olympics in London this year as well as exploring
community and individual responses to risks such as climate change. As a surfer of over 20 years, mostly in the
cold and fickle waves of the South West of England, it was only a matter of
time before I started exploring sustainable development in the surfing world. What
follows are some thoughts on sustainable development, surfing and an emerging
area of research.
I start in recent history with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development or Rio +20 as it is
popularly known that took place last week between the 20th and 22 nd
June. The very predictable debates over its success or otherwise will now stretch
out over the coming weeks. The outcome
document, ‘The Future we Want’ has been described by Ban Ki Moon, Secretary
General of the United Nations as a firm foundation for social, economic and
environmental well being. On the other
hand groups like Oxfam and Greenpeace have expressed some serious concerns
about the real world impacts of the conference.
I am not going to expand on this here but whatever your stance on the
conference and the outcomes it has undoubtedly highlighted and reinforced the
unsustainable nature of humanities current developmental pathways as an exponentially
rising global population relies on an
ever diminishing and unevenly distributed resource base.
The conference has also highlights how difficult the term
sustainable development is to define and and it remains a contested and ambiguous
concept. It has been described as an oxymoron, that no development by its very
nature can be sustainable, some say that it means all thing to all people and
so, ultimately means nothing. Perhaps, the
most serious accusation is that it is a term that does nothing more than
legitimise existing modes or production and consumption, and as we all know,
they don’t really work.
With that in mind I am a proponent of sustainable development,
I believe it is the most
important term of the 21st Century and
provides a focal point around which different cultures, different, religions,
different sectors can come together and discuss the multiple and complex
impacts humanity is having on our planet. Its basic definition from the Bruntland Commission’s
1987 report ‘Our Common Future’ (WCED 1987) says it is ‘development that meets
the needs of current populations without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs’. This definition was again enforced at the
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Rio Earth Summit
in 1992. It was at this summit that
Agenda 21 (UN 1992) was borne, considered by many to be the blue print for a
sustainable development.
In the 20 years between the first Rio summit in 1992 and its
most recent incarnation, the meaning and context of the concept has altered
significantly. Initially, focused on the
environment, now the term is broader with the three pillars, or the triple
bottom line of environment, society and the economy constituting its
definition. Recent work, including my own now emphasises the complexity and
systems approach to sustainable development exploring governance and the role
of multiple stakeholders.
With this woefully inadequate potted history, definition and
emerging perspectives on sustainable development established it is at this
point that I bring sustainable development and surfing together. I am not going
to outline impacts relating to surfing, I’ll only point out that with an estimated 10 million surfers in 120 countries and an
industry worth in excess of six billion dollars surfing as a unique activity is
a significant player on the international stage in many different areas. These range from the impacts on local
communities through the rapid rise of surf tourism to the impact of the
production and consumption of surfing related products, shorts, wetsuits boards
etc. As with other sector of society the
language of sustainability is being
used to grapple with the multiple issues that relate to surfing.
Of course, what the term means within the surfing world will inevitably
alter and change depending on what area is being looked at, and so it should,
it is not a constant it is evolving and it is complex and it will mean
different things to different people with different values and priorities. So
with that said I do not offer up a definition of what sustainability should be.
I do not suggest that there should be at some distant point in the future an
ideal situation or utopian vision. Instead I urge an interrogation of the term
and what it’s being applied to. This interrogation
starts with a very simple question. How is sustainability being used and in
what context? It means looking very carefully at ‘sustainability claims’. It
means understanding for example what is meant by sustainable surf tourism,
understanding the impacts and processes, asking the right questions and
challenging the established status quo. It’s about accommodating diversity,
conflict and different visions. What it absolutely should not mean and
referring back to the most serious criticisms of sustainable development, it
should not be about business as usual.
I have only begun to explore these questions and I start
modestly. But I cautiously see some
genuine and exciting changes within the surfing world. There are a number of internal and external
variables I could point to support this
claim, but for now I will only outline
three key areas. Firstly, the mediums for the serious exchange of ideas,
thought and commentary within the surfing world have significantly evolved or
maybe grown up. The Inertia is an example of this with Forbes describing it as
the Huffington Post for surfers. The creation of the website The Greener Blue with
a specific focus on surfing and sustainability is another example of this. Secondly, a very visible change is the
increasing effectiveness of non profit organisations that specifically focus on
sustainability. In particular, Sustainable Surf and its programmes related to market
transformation within the surfing industry is an example of the need for
changing towards a more sustainable model of doing business. Their Waste to Waves programme has been successful
not only from a recycling perspective but also in moving the debates around
recycling and pollution in surfing into the mainstream media, with as an
example an article in Forbes. The greening
of the San Francisco Ripcurl Pro and the subsequent partnership with the Association
of Surfing Professional leading to the sustainability
initiatives at the Volcom Fiji pro through the Deep Blue Surfing initiative are
yet more examples.
Thirdly, the establishment of the world’s first ever Center
for Surf Research at San Diego State University. This has provided a focal point for industry,
non for profit organisations, and
academia to come together and discuss the specific and unique dynamics of the
surfing world. The conference in January
of this year organised by the Center and the Groundswell Society, ‘Surfings New Aloha: The Growing Trend of
Giving Back’ drew on a range of people all relating to the surfing world all
trying to make a difference and understand the future of what I see as
different aspects of sustainability and surfing.
As with the Rio conference this represents a process that
begins to articulate the problem in a comprehensive fashion that in turn
facilitates discussions of the solutions.
Over the coming months I will be working with both Sustainable Surf and
The Center for Surf Research to continue these discussions and conduct research
that aims to understand sustainability within the surfing world. This has
begun with the UK’s first research group
focused specifically on sustainability and surfing at Plymouth University, The
Plymouth Sustainability and Surfing research group.
I consider this article to be part of the process of
understanding what sustainability is in surfing and what triggers are needed to
build momentum on this initial transition.
I would like to ask as many people as possible reading this to comment
on what they believe this should look like and what should happen next.
* A Revised version of this article appears in the www.theinertia.com http://www.theinertia.com/environment/sustainable-development-and-surfing/
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