Sustainability
At the heart of our mission and values is a willingness to generate a net positive impact on society. This starts by having an integral, balanced, and combined view of all our stakeholders’ interests; from our visitors to our shareholders, including local communities, the environment, our colleagues and the wider surfing sector.
The net positive impact concept is based on the principle that while we will not always be perfect, we will measure our impact, whether positive or not and continue to find ways to improve. As a business, we are developing and implementing tools that will allow us to monitor the impact of our operations on our different stakeholders, with the aim of maximising the positives and reducing or offsetting the negatives.
Being the biggest wave pool in Europe is not only a remarkable achievement, it brings with it a high degree of responsibility in terms of making it work as sustainably as we possibly can, which is why we want to be transparent about the main topics you might be interested in:
From a disused quarry to a world class leisure destination!
Lost Shore Surf Resort is a world class leisure facility that has been built in the disused Craigpark Quarry, where the iconic Edinburgh cobbles were extracted and sent into the city in barges via the Union Canal, which sits alongside the resort’s boundary.
The initial status of the site was a brownfield site with large areas of open ground and piles of quarry spoil. It had limited fauna and flora, steep slopes and rock faces with limited natural capital assets and potential ecosystem services.
The change to a country park will create substantial natural capital value and will include developing less than 50% of the site. There will be new wetland, woodland and grassland habitats and a substantial increase in biodiversity, including soil creation, re‐profiling and an entirely new landscape.
Energy Use
To power the site, we are using a green energy tariff. This means that all the electricity we use is produced from renewable sources and backed by REGOs (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origins) and/or GoOs (Guarantee of Origin).
The REGO scheme is administered by Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) and is used to provide transparency to consumers about the proportion of electricity that suppliers source from renewable generation in the UK.
GoOs are proof that the electricity has been generated by a renewable generation source. Sometimes new technologies need time to develop to become suitable for commercial use. This is something that we acknowledge and we have monitored in our Carbon Management Plan.
Partnering with Wavegarden as our technology provider means that we can operate our Cove in a much more sustainable way:
- The Wavegarden Cove is the most energy-efficient technology in the sector – using 10 times less energy than the pneumatic systems used by most other surf park developers.
- Wavegarden’s technology consumes only 250-450 kilowatts per hour (kWh), or less energy than a single chair lift at a ski resort.
Water Use
We are using a water source from the Union Canal, that after being processed with Wavegarden’s Water Treatment Technology will be classed as drinkable water.
We will need to empty the Cove for maintenance works from time to time and will return cleaner water to the canal through our sustainable drainage system.
As a consequence of this we will help oxygenate the canal, which will help address the issues with anoxia that exist in these kind of stagnant water bodies.
The typical annual water consumption of a Wavegarden Cove vs. similar facilities:
- Wavegarden Cove: 30.000 – 50.000 m3
- Olympic swimming pool: 30.000 – 50.000 m3
- Golf course with 18 holes in Murcia, Spain: 260.000 m3
- 18-hole golf course in Aquitaine, France: 95,140 m3
- Football stadium: 40.000 m3