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.

Note – The use of a simple thin veneer of a renewable material (like bamboo, cork, hoop pine, etc.), laminated onto a foam core, will not be deemed as qualifying material. The wood must also provide a significant structural foundation for the board beyond the typical function of a stringer.

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 fibreglass 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.

Note – The use of a simple thin veneer of a renewable material (like bamboo, cork, hoop pine, etc.), laminated onto a foam core, will not be deemed as qualifying material. The wood must also provide a significant structural foundation for the board beyond the typical function of a stringer.