A few years ago, our dear family member Patrick wrote a very interesting blog post about Surf Cascais & the environment. You can read the full article HERE.
Some time passed and we would love to share with you our improvements in that subject, especially in times where sustainability is so important!
The ocean & nature is our home, our office, our passion, our ''fabric'' of waves that produces so much happiness. 🌊 Without it, Surf Cascais would not exist!
Here are some of the most important actions that take Surf Cascais into a more sustainable company:
Raising awareness for a real problem: It's a fact that the world is changing, the CO2 in the atmosphere is getting worse & worse and our ecosystems are not working as they should. Everyday in the news we see more extreme weather situations happening and we can't deny that the world is going in the wrong direction. In Surf Cascais we have access to thousands of nature & ocean lovers. Its our duty to pass awareness of this visible problem, directly affecting our surroundings. In the daily contact with the students we talk about how the forecast is not reliable anymore, how many new storms are coming every season, how the sand banks are moving in a weird way, the quality of the water its not the same, etc. These problems are happening now and interfering with the quality and safeness of our surf lessons. There is no better way to pass this awareness by showing clear examples in how the world is changing due to our own acts. A good way to raise awareness is also promote beach cleaning actions so guests & staff can see that, even in a super clean beach there is still plenty of trash & micro plastics.
Buying quality & local products: Most of the people don't know that the more we buy the more energy we spend & waste we create. Energy is obviously one of the biggest problems in the world, since just a few countries can rely on renewable energy. With that in mind, we always look for the most resistant products in the market (wetsuits, surfboards, vans, bed sheets, etc). They are obviously more expensive but last way longer. We can also fix them and continue using until they are totally destroyed. Apart from getting quality products, we also look to buy local. Why? Because they need way less energy moving from place A (producing place) to our lovely School & Camp. Also, by helping smaller companies and local producers, we are fighting against mass production & monopolies. From our breakfast supplies, illustrations on the wall, Villa construction materials, our water boiling system, merchandising, bed sheets & towels, surf lycras, etc. we have plenty of examples on how we use Portuguese suppliers.
Improving the Villa to be more efficient & environment friendly: You probably realized in our social media posts that we made some improvements in our Surf Villa exterior. Those were purely to make your stay more comfortable & thinking about the environment. We reduced by 40% our grass space, saving plenty of water and grass care. The grass was substituted by a 100% Portuguese made tile from the south of Portugal, very sustainable and durable. We also changed the existent front of the house grass for one more suitable to the local weather and built a pergola in order to create more shadow for those sunny summer days. We also changed our water boiling system by cutting with gas supplying and fully working with solar panels & a heat pump. The heat pump is 85% more energy efficient than the convencional system we had before. It was also built in Portugal by a Portuguese brand from the north of Portugal.
These are just simple examples of how we can make an impact and influence others to have the same approach. Simple acts can make a difference, if we all think like this, it will be a huge impact!
If you have any suggestions on how we can be even more sustainable, feel free to leave a message or email us to info@surfcascais.com. We are sure this is just the beginning and every year we will improve into a cleaner company.
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