With more of a spotlight on the superyacht industry as a whole, Claire Griffiths asks some of the world’s leading shipyards how they are changing work practices in an effort to go green
As she glides seamlessly out of the shipyard, a picture of pure perfection, it’s difficult to imagine how much environmental carnage the superyacht leaves in her wake;- Pollutants to land, sea and air, with lifetimes worth of damage oozing everywhere.
With the focus on ‘going green’ picking up new momentum, is the hub of the superyacht industry, the shipyard, pulling up its proverbial green socks?
To a greater or lesser degree the answer is ‘Yes’ and Onboard went to investigate where and what is going on.
The important point is to know how to throw suggests Research Team Leader at Feadship, Giedo Loeff , so that the dangerous products don’t seep out under the doors and do damage elsewhere.
But it’s not just disposal we need to consider, it’s the upstream, core, and downstream impacts too. That means thinking about where materials and systems are sourced, the facilities, business travel, yacht services and finally the use phase of the superyacht.
HOW GREEN ?
Says Loeff, ‘Feadship is investing a vast effort to identify the various direct and indirect environmental impacts throughout the various lifecycle phases of a superyacht. With substantial research capacity at our disposal, we feel it is our responsibility to identify and inform clients/supply chains and act.’ When considering global warming potential, Feadship has identified the use phase of the yachts as the greatest (>95%) threat i.e. emissions related to the fuel consumption. The second most important element is the upstream (e.g. steel, aluminium copper mining and smelting) and the smallest (1-2%) the Feadship manufacturing (core) impact. Says Loeff, ‘Knowing this does not release us from the responsibility to reduce the impact of our core process (we certainly make good progress on that) but motivates us to develop the yacht design/system solutions and services to reduce the use phase and start weighting in the impact of our vendors in the procurement process’.
At The Italian Sea Group (ISG), energy consumption, GHG and CO2 emissions are carefully monitored both in the production and yacht utilisation phases.
Monaco Marine also has procedures in place to monitor the risks and environmental impact of its activities. This, explains Chief Operating Officer, David Queva, largely means controlling possible air and water pollution from activities such as paint, varnish, antifouling, carpentry, careening or product spillages. ‘All activities generate waste,’ he explains, ‘And that needs to be methodically analysed, separated and properly disposed of and or recycled. Smoke released during steel and aluminium works, sandblasting, or chemical release during plate treatments, painting and hull treatments, all need to be considered.
Green thinking is now an important part of a successful business plan. Says Loeff at Feadship; ‘ We have a lot of roof tops and of course therefore a lot of solar panels. We manage our energy contracts. We split our waste flow and try to recycle for instance aluminium alloys back to our vendor to further improve the recycling process by not downgrading the material. We invest in testing; for example we look at some 20 different alternative decking materials to consider all the sustainability aspects associated with that’.