QBC and our Environment

At the July Contest there was something that you didn’t notice. That was the noise of the generator.

QBC needs a fair amount of electricity to run our comp days, and so we’ve always used a petrol fuelled generator that we can plug into. That keeps the heat lights working, recharge the judge’s iPads, hooter and music, internet and all the other bits and pieces that we can’t get down at the beach.

In April, one of our members who’s an environmental engineer, came to me and suggested that we replace the generator with a solar charged lithium battery pack. We’d both commented that there were a lot of kids playing around the generator, which didn’t appeal as parents to those kids! He reckoned we could reduce the cost of the considerable amount of petrol we use, significantly reduce the emissions that we’re pumping out into the world and reduce the noise pollution that we put on people walking past the comp site.

And so on Saturday, we trialed that – using the solar charged battery pack to run the whole contest day. And it worked perfectly!
Not only did we have zero hiccups, no-one even noticed it because there’s no noise and no fumes!

This is a really cool addition to QBC’s environmental creds, and I think really helps put QBC out there as a leader in the area, adding to some initiatives we’ve been following this year in our community’s environmental space.

Thanks needs to go to my fellow over-40’s competitor, Tim Stubbs, and his company WolfPeak, who very kindly researched and donated the solar and battery setup to QBC. It’s a significant acquisition for the club that will make a real difference. Thanks guys – absolute legends.

On environmental improvement around the club – there’s a whole lot going on from our members and in the club.

This year in line with the Surfing NSW x EPA initiative we’ve changed some of our ordering and usage so there’s a big reduction in the amount of plastics we’re using. This has further to go with removal of all soft plastic products like garbage bags, and phasing out of waste and packaging from food like popper straws and wrappers.

Some of our members are also involved with Manly Lagoon Friends that works towards cleaning up and education around our immediate environment. You can join as a Friend on their website.

Where can we get better?

We can do more as a club to improve our sustainability credentials. If you’ve got ideas, come and see me at the comp, or send an email through the club email address with your ideas. Keen to hear cos we’re stronger together.

Yew!