|
|
| Venture |
The Lounge Feature |
Words by: Caz Ridings
Snowboarding doesn’t often tread the path towards being an ecologically sound sport. Sure, while you’re up in the hills breathing in the crisp mountain air you may feel more connected to mother earth, but in reality you’re actually giving her a swift sharp kick up the clacker - paying lift-pass money to some nasty developer to doze trees and install sewerage pipes to build you a resort where energy is fritted away on powering lifts and snow machines and Jacuzzis full of rich fat tourists who, in turn, deposit tonnes of rubbish and pollution all over what was once a pristine alpine environment. Yep, unless you hike everywhere, wear bio-degradable kit and carve your own boards out of renewable, biodegradable substances, you’re mucking up the planet just to get your kicks - major bummer huh dude? Especially since right this very second global warming is melting a cubic meter pow on some remote glacier faster than you can microwave a bag of popcorn…
Enter Venture. Straight out of Colorado, Venture snowboards receives kudos for its longstanding efforts to produce high performance snowboards while minimizing environmental impact. Started in 1999 by the husband and wife team of Klemens and Lisa Branner, this small, independent snowboard manufacturer has taken a sustainable approach from day one. The company uses only sustainably grown and harvested hardwoods for its signature book matched cores, reduces its use of plastics by utilizing fabric top sheets (including organic cotton and hemp), and recycles or reuses most of the waste generated by the production process. The company also began powering its entire operation with wind power credits last fall—a resounding first for the snow sports industry. They’re also certified by the Smart Wood Program of the Rainforest Alliance for its exclusive use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood. This step toward environmentally responsible snowboard manufacturing is also a precedent-setting first for the industry –and hopefully one more companies will follow.
Making environmentally responsible choices is a given for the Branners. "As riders, we spend a lot of time outdoors, so of course we want to help protect our surroundings. Trying to incorporate low-impact techniques and materials wherever we can is our way of helping preserve things for the next generation of riders," says Klemens, who studied mechanical engineering and renewable energy at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Lisa adds, “It’s definitely a balancing act, but we are committed to maintaining quality and performance while doing the least amount of environmental harm.”
Their boards look half decent too; feasible considering as much effort is put towards performance design as ecological concerns. And as riders, we all know that performance is where the ultimate test of a board lies - no matter how many little chipmunks or endangered trees a board has saved. But to offer both conscience and cool crisp lines? Venture just might be onto something.
|
Tags: The Lounge, Sport
|