What better New Year’s resolution than to kick off the decade of sustainability in yachting, aligning with the United Nations’ international 2030 agenda for their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To start this crucial decade, Water Revolution Foundation is proud to launch the very first industry-wide Code of Conduct.
Code of Conduct
As part of its mission to drive sustainability in the superyacht industry through collaboration and innovation, Water Revolution Foundation has developed a Code of Conduct, made up of 10 commitments for companies to sign up to. It reinforces the collective approach, but also emphasises the individual responsibility and major influence that each company has.
Signing the Code of Conduct
The first opportunity to physically sign this Code of Conduct will be at the upcoming Boat International Superyacht Design Festival in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy from 2 to 4 February, bringing together the leading designers and builders of the superyacht industry. There will be further opportunities to sign at other upcoming industry events, including the Dubai International Boat Show, Monaco Ocean Week and Superyacht Design Forum.
As a sustainability scientist, I know that any successful business must embrace sustainability as both a guiding principle and strategic goal to innovate and gain a competitive advantage. There’s simply no alternative to sustainable development today. Its importance goes far beyond the environmental perspective as the need to behave responsibly becomes a crucial aspect of strategy and operations. This applies equally to the superyacht industry; sustainability is key to our success.
Water Revolution Foundation has sustainability at its core. Our mission is simple: we’re founded by – and for – the superyacht industry to help accelerate its shift towards a more sustainable future. Yachting relies on the health of oceans, and their conservation is vital for the planet’s well-being.
But let’s start at the beginning. In my previous role as the first sustainability manager at a superyacht builder, I had the opportunity to set up the first integrated sustainability-management system, specifically developed for the sector. This software tool utilises computational sustainability to measure the impact on carbon dioxide, water use and costs of choices made during the design and build process of a yacht, allowing more informed choices to be made. Although I didn‘t know it at the time, this was the first step towards the establishment of Water Revolution Foundation.
The sustainability-management system was built for the greater good. The aim was to develop a tool that could then be shared with the entire superyacht industry, not just kept as a competitive advantage. After sitting alongside designers, engineers and architects, I realised that we needed to close the gap between how much we know about sustainability and what we do in our daily work to shape a sustainable future. Water Revolution Foundation was established to expand upon this effort, working together with all stakeholders to make large-scale change, and will be the home for those who want to act; companies that recognise that delegating their responsibility through weak and inadequate charity projects is not enough.
This foundation is for those who want to make meaningful change – not greenwash the industry. As an industry, we have extraordinary potential to transform into a hub for innovation. We have the talent, technology and resources required; what we’ve been lacking is the hub. That’s where Water Revolution Foundation steps in. With each new project, designers and shipyards push the perimeter of innovation one notch further, creating new solutions and technical advancements. By working together to share these sustainable solutions, we can accelerate their adoption on a large scale. Looking beyond our own industry, there is a wide range of naval solutions available, from increasing the efficiency of on-board systems to renewable fuel sources and entirely ecological composites. Water Revolution Foundation will offer a database of these solutions, allowing the industry to accelerate the shift towards sustainability.
When I started in the superyacht industry, ‘sustainability’ was a strange word to use. Even as other industries worked towards aligning their value chains with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, it remained a foreign concept in the superyacht world. Meanwhile, the concept of responsible entrepreneurship had become a vital business strategy, allowing many other industries to understand the challenges of sustainable development. This led them to increase efficiency and create new, better products by reducing material and energy intensity, decreasing the use of non-renewable resources and toxic substances, and increasing the durability, recyclability and serviceability of their goods.
These industries have successfully influenced their suppliers and customers and spread the concept across the supply chain. They have also developed reporting mechanisms to monitor progress, such as eco-efficiency indicators and benchmarks. Let’s learn from these industries that have found both environmental and economic success. Let’s secure our sustainable future. We have the skills, we have the technology; all we need is the courage to be ahead of the curve. Let’s do it together.
Co-founder Martin Redmayne explains why Water Revolution offers the superyacht industry the opportunity to take control of what we can influence and improve in order to become more sustainable and attract new clientele.
Water Revolution Foundation and The Superyacht Group are conducting a survey focusing on superyacht sustainability.
We are asking stakeholders from across the industry spectrum for their opinions on sustainability within yachting and whether it is a priority. We are also inviting those involved in sustainability initiatives to make us aware of them, so that we can help to publicise these invaluable works.
Vienna Eleuteri, initiator of Water Revolution Foundation, wrote about the purpose of this new initiative in The Superyacht Report.
“It was only in November when, together with co-founders Henk de Vries, Martin Redmayne, Phillipe Briand and Robert van Tol, I saw my initiative become a reality as it was introduced on stage at The Superyacht Forum in Amsterdam. Water Revolution Foundation was established at last.
As a sustainability scientist, I know that any successful business must embrace sustainability as both a guiding principle and strategic goal to innovate and gain a competitive advantage. There’s simply no alternative to sustainable development today. Its importance goes far beyond the environmental perspective as the need to behave responsibly becomes a crucial aspect of strategy and operations. This applies equally to our industry; sustainability is key to our success.”
Water Revolution Foundation was introduced by its founders at The Superyacht Forum on 12 November 2018 in Amsterdam. The forum’s esteemed audience existing of superyacht builders, designers, managers, suppliers, service providers and many more industry stakeholders, applauded the founders on this new initiative. After many years and conferences of addressing the challenge and discussing it, Water Revolution Foundation is taking the lead to drive sustainability in the superyacht industry.
Like any other industry, the superyacht industry has an environmental footprint, it is time to face this and collaborate to significantly minimize this. The foundation’s chairman, Henk de Vries III, initiator and vice-chair, Vienna Eleuteri; board members, Philippe Briand and Martin Redmayne, and executive director, Robert van Tol sat on stage to explain that this new initiative was meant to be inclusive to all active in the superyacht industry and largely focused on sharing insight, information and best practices in order to accelerate the shift. The foundation views each superyacht as a platform for innovation, experimentation and pioneering technology.
The superyacht industry is in the unique position to lead the way, with its affluent clientele as well as its dependency of the condition of the oceans. The founders of Water Revolution Foundation emphasised that this a for-and-by-the-industry platform and encouraged to get involved to future-proof the industry and preserve the world’s precious oceans.
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