Anyone who loves the winter season or the sports associated with it is aware of the potential impact of global warming. So it only makes sense that sporting equipment that is dependent on the natural surroundings for its success would go green.

Two companies appear to be leading the way in creating eco-friendly snowboards by changing the materials used to make them.

Venture Snowboards uses FSC certified wood from Pennsylvania (The FSC certification means that the material is from a responsibly managed forest as outlined by international standards) with a hemp and organic cotton top sheet. While Arbor builds their boards from bamboo and other sustainable harvested woods.

Everyone is attempting to make their products more green including the sporting industry. Surfboards are now being made greener with new materials that make up their composition.

The industry saw change within the surfing industry when Clark Foam, a company that supplied approximately 90% of the surfboard market’s blanks (the uncut and unshaped boards) closed in 2005. The closing drew attention to the problems of using TDI (toluene diisocyanate) and polyester resin which were the materials used to make the blanks. According to the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the materials are considered harmful to both the environment and the workers who handle them.

As a result, manufacturers such as Patagonia, Surftech, Ice-Nine and Aviso have began using epoxy resins, natural composites or blanks made up of less environmentally toxic MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate).