Transcript:

music, ambience skateboards

“It’s more a matter of becoming friendlier to the environment, or maybe more truthfully stated, having less of a negative impact.”

We’re listening to the sounds of a skateboard park. Skateboards are made from hard wood usually maple. And that said, is it possible to create a green skateboard one that’s manufactured with a low environmental impact. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

“We’re constantly working on ways of just reducing our impact on the environment.”

Michael Bream is founder of Gravity of Gravity skateboards.

“It’s kind of aa misnomer when you see somebody advertising a product and they say it’s environmentally friendly, because the truth of the matter is anybody who really manufactures anything that uses resources, it’s not environmentally friendly.”

[skateboard ambience]

“Right now, we’re trying to focus on recycling materials and working more with woods that come from managed forests, because we understand by making anything made out of wood, you know, it has to come from trees. There’s just no alternative, but there’s several different levels of impact that we can have, you know, based on what kind of woods and where we get them from and what we do with the scraps and the level of volatile organic compounds in the glues that are used and things of that nature.”

Do you know a third to sixth grader who has an idea for designing an environmentally friendly skateboard? Have them check out the kids’ science challenge at kidsciencechallenge.com. Kids whose ideas are chosen get to collaborate with engineers like Michael Bream to see their dream turned into a reality. That’s kid science challenge dot com.

Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

music