From loading up your car and driving to your nearest hill, to chairlifts riding up and down all day to all your après-ski activity snowboarding is far from being sustainable. And climate change is threatening winter sports in particular.

Some snowboard manufacturers have already realized that and this season even more snowboards are going “green”. From innovators such as LibTech and Gnu for whom green has been the standard for more than 20 years to companies like Burton more and more producers are offering green and eco-friendly boards. And it’s all just a beginning as boards made with sustainable material account for just 2% of the board market. Snowboarders just as surfers are attached to the nature so they are wiling to buy something that is ecologically better for the planet.

Amongst the first in this area and still at the forefront is Arbor based in Venice California makes their environmentally friendly snowboards out of Forest Certified woods and bamboo veneers since 1995 and has only recently gained recognition as a leading green company.

Lib Tech and Gnu boards all feature an array of green ingredients, including certified wood cores, 100 percent recyclable bases, basalt as an alternative to traditional fiberglass, and a top sheet material called Beans, made from castor beans. The factory itself recycles seven tons of waste each month, including all scrap steel from edges, base and sidewall materials and sawdust from making and milling wood cores.

Salmon won a 2008 Volvo Sports Design award for Eco Design for the construction of Sick Stick Snowboard. It’s built with use of structural bamboo that makes it not only greener but also lighter.

Burton has just designed it’s firt green snowboard Eco Nico with certified wood core, a lacquer-free top sheet, 90-percent recycled steel edges, 100-percent recycled sidewalls and a 50-percent recycled base. They also continue developing their Green Mountain Project the company’s first outerwear and layering collection that utilizes recycled materials and eco-friendly weatherproofing technology.

Voelkl is reducing their footprint with brand new Cashew board. Instead of a plastic topsheet, the Cashew features a tear-proof hemp/linen topsheet. 80% of the sintered base is made of recycled material while flexible wooden sidewalls replace the conventional ABS plastic ones. For the edges recyclable steel is used. It also contains as little resin and other toxicological materials as possible. They are cutting down the use of resources but not of technology and know-how! A unique combination of a directional sidecut, Rocker Shape and Convex Powder Base provides incredibly playful riding behaviour as well as maximum flotation in powder snow. An integrated Shock Absorber makes the board super stable for huge jumps too. The ultimate package for backcountry and park ventures and at the same time, for a better future!

K2 Eco Pop is an earth-friendly Gretchen Bleiler’s new pro model snowboard built in full with eco friendly materials and techniques, it’s core is built with a sustainable wood ans it’s construction slashes use of plastics, coatings, solvents, resins, and packaging. It also features K2’s new flatline tech which means the board has absolutely no camber or rocker but it’s super stable and very quick.

Bataleon also has their own Project Green Board: it is made with all the latest green alternative materials and produced in a factory with very strict green policies.

For you to get yourself all green you should have OneBallJay eco-friendly bio wax produced from soy beans. The producer donates 2% of all Soy Wax product Sales to earth and ocean non-profit charities to better our environment. Finally Howies, an active clothing company that believes in making higher quality, lower impact products is making some really great merino wool underlayers for you to keep yourself war while shredding the slopes.

The only problem is that those eco products tend to be more expansive then normal ones due to expansive research and investigation. Nevertheless they are a step in the right direction and all those projects will evolve step by step in the new eco-snowboarding revolution. Are you with us?