On Sunday, after The Superyacht Forum, I woke up quite early to watch on TV one of the most awaited motor sport events: the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix. As expected, the show from Las Vegas was fascinating, and the race itself exceeded expectations with spectacular on-track fights and plenty of overtaking. You might not be a fan of Formula 1, but if you are in the superyacht industry, because of the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, you know what it's about: celebrities, adrenaline, racing, fast cars, tire smoke, and petrol burning. But wait... Look at the background of the picture on top of the article (a screenshot from F1TV post-race interviews): "F1 NET ZERO 2030."
A sport event, which until recently was all about fossil-fuel burning vehicles racing, sets a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal): "Net Zero 2030." Isn't that the whole point we are missing in the superyacht industry? We publicly, and I guess still in not only a few cases internally, are perceived as the last bastion of the "business as usual" for the ultra-rich, where the one that has the money orders the music. Thus comes the public request, that we as an industry shall not exist. What holds us back from setting a bold and measurable sustainability goal and working towards it together as an industry?
Would publicly committing to a bold sustainability goal, i.e., "Net Zero by..." be only greenwashing? I don't think so, because already now within the industry, there are a handful of great initiatives. The boldest one is PROJECT ZERO, a completely fossil-free 69m sailing yacht. Commissioned by Foundation Zero, designed and built in collaboration with Dykstra Naval Architects, VRIPACK DESIGN, and Vitters Shipyard , she already is in an advanced building stage. Feadship has an ambitious goal to build a carbon-neutral superyacht by 2030. There is the Water Revolution Foundation, founded at TSF back in 2018, working on YETI (Yacht Environmental Transparency Index) with a goal to score superyachts by their environmental credentials. The SEA Index Superyacht Eco Association, founded by Yacht Club de Monaco, aims to provide yacht owners with information to make buying or chartering decisions based on yachts' CO2 emissions. Equally important, there are initiatives to build superyacht crew skills on best sustainability practices on board: Prepared by ex-Chief Stewardess of S/Y Black Pearl, now Superyacht Consultant Danella Hopkins, there are Crew Environmental Guidelines which soon shall be available on the Water Revolution Foundation home page; ETYC has elaborated a dedicated environmental training program for crew.
One of the topics raised during the YETI workshop was: what about the buyers? Are UHNWIs ready for sustainable superyachts and are ready to open their wallets for this? And here I would like to ask a question in return: are we ready and willing to educate and lead the way? How many of the key players in the industry put their sustainability ambitions right upfront? Are these goals boldly communicated? I was intrigued to hear Feadship's ambitious goal to build a fossil-free superyacht by 2030. But, I couldn't find anything about this goal on the Feadship website. I kept browsing through major superyacht builders' websites and barely found any information about their sustainability policies. The only exception was Vripack Design, whose landing page showcased Project Zero.
The sustainability flag hoisted by industry leaders would serve also as a guiding light for the rest of the industry to embark on the journey towards sustainability. Our industry is very segmented with a large number of small businesses serving superyachts at various operational levels. Industry-wide sustainability standards and guidelines would help vertical and horizontal implementation across the industry. Clear and loud industry announcements would also serve as a psychological driver, whether that be extra motivation for big goals, fear of missing out, or just the simple danger of being out of the industry.
When during The Superyacht Forum I was asked, how do you like the event, the answer formed quite easily: "It is like getting out of our cave and seeing that there is an entire world outside." Initially, I meant it about myself because who else can I blame if I hear about sustainability in the superyacht industry only once a year at TSF? Martin Redmayne and The Superyacht Group team are doing great work in bringing us all together and forcing us to discuss the topic together. But it is not enough to talk about this only once a year. We have to get out of the cave, hoist the flag, be bold and start to work all together.
Here are some links mentioned in the article:
Foundation Zero https://www.foundationzero.org
Water Revolution Foundation https://waterrevolutionfoundation.org
Environmental Crew Guidelines (shall be available soon) https://waterrevolutionfoundation.org/guidelines/environmental-crew-guidelines/
EYTC (Environmental Training for Crew) https://www.etyc.fr
Sea Index https://sea-index.com/
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