The Noosa Festival of Surfing event is managed by World Surfaris Pty Ltd on behalf of the Noosa Malibu Club. Both World Surfaris & the Club hold environmental and social sustainability and responsibility as key to the operation, development and future of the Noosa Festival of Surfing. Not only for the local Noosa community but also for surfing culture globally.
The Festival is a 9-day program, being held from 5-13 March 2022 (inclusive) in the Noosa Shire, at First Point, Main Beach, Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The program includes surfing competitions, skate boarding, music, art and cultural exhibitions and charity events. We expect approximately 400 competitors and thousands of visitors, both domestic and international, who will come to Noosa to experience our celebration of the joy of surfing in the widest sense. They will enjoy the iconic coastline, a combination of natural beaches, dunes and tidal ecosystems, coastal parks and coastal infrastructure, as well as Noosa’s associated village atmosphere of first-class accommodation, dining and shopping, gourmet produce and surf culture – all with a uniquely environmentally sensitive ethos.
The surrounding coastline, in particular First Point at Main Beach, is one of just 10 World Surfing Reserves. It has significant cultural, social and historical meaning to the traditional custodians, the Kabi-Kabi, local residents and surfers around the world. The Festival recognizes its event management activities and operations on the beach and in the water have the potential to have both positive and negative environmental, economic and social impact. The Festival commits to continually improve the environmental and social sustainability performance and annual benchmarking. Our sustainable event management principles are Stewardship, Inclusivity, Integrity and Transparency.
In 2022, we will continue to benchmark our key activities of energy, water and waste and encourage participation from our local communities, National Parks and World Surfing Reserve conservation groups. Event operators will continue to eliminate all single use plastic at our event and will encourage visitors and contestants to BYO water bottle and refill for free at our UnityWater community water van, saving single use water bottles. We will aim for 75% diversion of waste from landfill and offer 4 x waste stream bin stations including commercially compostable organics, refundable containers, landfill and recycling. We will continue to work with Plastic Free Noosa to keep our Plastic Free Champion status and choose suppliers and vendors who can adhere to our criteria.
In recent years, the event has achieved a Carbon Positive status by voluntarily offsetting more carbon than produced. We will continue to support the $1/paid ticket to the local reforestation project “Trees for Tourism” with Landcare and Tourism Noosa to ensure the habitat of our koalas and other at-risk species are replaced within Noosa Shire. Each tree planted sequesters 124kg of carbon dioxide and helps offset our carbon emissions of the event.
The Festival will comply with all relevant legislation and regulations within the permit approved through the Noosa Council and strive to achieve international best practice on environmental and sustainability matters. Special consideration will be given to promoting local businesses within the Festival and wherever possible, environmentally sustainable products and services will be sourced locally.
World Surfaris initiated the initial appointment of a Sustainability Officer for the Festival, as well as creating the annual Sustainability Report. Our Sustainability Officer will ensure ongoing environmental performance, identification of environmental risks, recording and monitoring of impacts and implementing environmental and social sustainability measures.
We encourage everyone associated with the Festival to present our commitment to environmental and social sustainability to our competitors, guests, visitors, suppliers, contractors, agents and sponsors.
Signed
JOHN FINLAY, Director, World Surfaris
Noosa Festival of Surfing Event Manager
2 November 2021
(This policy is a public document designed to be on display – a copy may be given to anyone. The organization invites staff, landowners, guests and the community to suggest ways to further achieve best practice environmental and social sustainability. This policy will be reviewed after the Festival and subsequently each year.)
