Water Revolution Foundation: A 2021 Update

While the start of 2021 might not have been as fruitful as we had all hoped, there is good news on the horizon, as the pandemic starts to curtail around the world. Water Revolution Foundation has been busy behind-the-scenes with everything from holding sustainability training courses to hosting a superyacht designers roundtable to discuss their vital role in the necessary transition towards sustainable yachting.

Below is a round-up of everything the team has been busy working on so far this year…

Superyacht designers roundtable

For the first time ever, Water Revolution Foundation held a superyacht designers roundtable to discuss their vital role in the necessary transition towards sustainable yachting. It was a very inspiring session, with iconic yacht designers present, and most importantly: concrete action items coming out of this. The next roundtable will take place in March, continuing the engagement and furthering the hands-on approach.

First conservation project

Water Revolution Foundation is nearing the launch of its first ocean conservation project and cannot wait to unveil it. The team is currently finalising the campaign towards the yachting community to collect as much support as possible. The foundation is set up to help the yachting community to reduce its environmental footprint, yet only reducing is not enough. In the same spirit, its mission is to help select and support the most effective projects that have a positive impact on our beloved oceans. They apply strict criteria and the most modern approach to nature conservation by working with the most renowned scientists in this field. Ocean conservation is a vital activity for yachting to have a sustainable business for the future. Stay tuned!

Sharing YETI with the world

Water Revolution Foundation has made a lot of progress, but there is still more to do. The team have set themselves a deadline for this month to share their progress on the highly anticipated Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI). In line with the ‘open source’ approach, the joint industry project group wishes to share its progress with the wider yachting industry and report on the work completed so far, the various analyses and research that have been conducted, and the calculation method that has been developed as YETI 1.0. 

This first version is aimed at comparing yachts on their environmental credentials during their annual operation. This will not be a launch presentation. Instead, the group will share the progress thus far and invite interested parties for peer-reviewing and testing to ensure its robustness. A series of presentations is planned for the coming weeks including our superyacht designers roundtable, followed by the Monaco Ocean Week, and the SYBAss Sustainability Committee. Conversations are ongoing with other interest groups.

Ninety and counting

Another eleven superyacht industry professionals ambitiously kicked off the new year by completing the Sustainability in Practice training course, provided by Centre of Sustainability and Excellence. The number of trained yachting professionals is now at 90 and counting. The next course is already fully booked, taking place on 31 March and 1 April. Dates for the next course will be announced soon, and pre-registration is already open. For those who have taken the course already, a private LinkedIn group has been created to share progress, experiences and challenges.

We need more sustainable solutions

The number of suppliers that are submitting their sustainable solutions to be promoted on the Water Revolution Foundation’s Database of Sustainable Solutions picks up. They are very pleased with this uptake, and hope to welcome many more submissions. When the team has received a minimum viable number of verified solutions to promote, they will launch phase two with the database of verified sustainable solutions open for the public. This will be promoted among the key decision makers during the new build, operation and refit stages of a yacht. The discounted rates for already-proven sustainable solutions through studies with a university or research institute are still available, and made possible through the support of BNP Paribas.

Shore power surveys – response requested

The team are currently conducting a survey among yacht captains and marinas to collect information on the availability and use of shore power. This will help in the development of a standardised operational profile for the Yacht Assessment Tool and Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI). Please feel free to share these surveys with your valuable networks.