Our criteria & requirements

Transparency at a glance

We try to get all the organizations or partners we are mentioning on our platform to state to which extent they meet specific criteria for sustainability and social commitment. That´s why surf & mind also developed some criteria & requirements to bring at a glance transparency about mentioned issues.

You can of course help us to improve the quality of our work by writing a comment and telling us about your opinion on our criteria or personal experience with organizations, accommodations or materials. This way we can bring together more transparency into the topic of “responsible surfing”.

Our six (possible) criteria for responsible surf accommodations

 Supports local, charitable NPOs (Non-Profit-Organizations)
 Runs proper social- or environmental projects
 Community integrated setting
 Minds about waste-reduction/avoidance and recycling (e.g. portable water stations)
 Uses (natural) resources mindfully (e.g. solar panels)
 Rents out sustainable surf equipment (e.g. wooden surfboards, eco-surfboards)

Our two requirements for partnering organizations for voluntary service and internships

All Non-Profit-Organizations (NPOs) for voluntary service and internships, which we write about on surf & mind, have to fulfill two criteria:

 The organization has to be a registered NPO which follows a charitable purpose and has no political or (major) religious goals.
 Furthermore the organization has to relate to one of the following topics: reduction of poverty, education & job training, health, integration, child- & youth protection and any other field which relates to the international human rights* as well as biodiversity, environmental conversation, animal protection or (post-) emergency response.

*Please see: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Testimonials who report about their positive volunteering experience also help NPOs to get a surf & mind partner. Last but not least it is important for us to be in contact with the owners/people working for the organization – getting to know the projects in person is our ideal reference.

Our two requirements for sustainable surf equipment

 For the surf & mind platform we only choose surf equipment which either follow the principle of “cradle to cradle”, or are upcycled products. This means that the material either follows the sustainable cycle and is compostable after its use or is going to be recycled, or the material has already been used for a different purpose/product which would get thrown away, but is re-designed for using it as surf gear.
 Additionally we want the selected surfequipment to be manufactured in fair and socially acceptable working conditions. However we know, that it will be hard for us to check this, especially for the resources used in the products.

A part from the mentioned surf & mind criteria and requirements, the team also considers international certificates or (officially) recognized awards.

It is crucial however to mention at this point, that although surf & mind has clear criteria and does a lot of research work, it does not guarantee that all of the information provided on the platform is a hundred percent correct. The information of the projects is based on the information provided by partner organizations and profound investigations.

 

Fotocredit: Armin Zechmeister