Could a ‘CARBON IMPACT STATEMENT’ for owners and charterers based on use, help accelerate us towards a more responsible and sustainable superyacht industry?
A controversial suggestion perhaps?
It would certainly speak to an uncomfortable truth about yachts and help dispel the myth that ‘superyachts are clean’.
Having raised this at an event recently there was naturally some resistance and concern about how this might affect business, but is that attitude somewhat naïve in assuming owners and charterers could not handle the truth? And, worryingly, what does the defence of wanting to hide the truth say about the industry?
I would suggest that the reality is that most yacht owners and charterers are very aware of environmental issues, whether from their own consumption, or their companies Environmental Societal and Governance (ESG) commitments and targets which are an inherent part of business and investment today.
Further, information of this type is readily available in the private and public aviation space, so why not yachts?
Of course, it could be made an option to report this to clients, but I see huge value in industry wide collecting, reporting (anonymised) and analysis of this rich source of data as it would provide us with our own measure of CO2 emissions.
We would have a more accurate figure and better understanding of the real operational CO2 emissions from yachts. Over the years this would also provide important evidence on how well the industry was doing in reducing emissions…or not, as the case may be?
“If you can’t measure it, how can you improve it?
Without this data we are hostage to governments, NGO’s, activists, and the mainstream media making up their own estimates. Would it not be better to have some control over this and demonstrate that, as a collective, we take our environmental responsibilities seriously?
Food for thought?
