5 Ways To Make Your Yacht More Sustainable

The yachting industry is making strides to be a global player in eco-friendly travel.

Tourism is seeing a huge push toward sustainable travel. That means finding ways to reduce your carbon footprint and emissions, adopting eco-friendly practices, and being aware of your impact on local communities. As a leader in innovation and technology, the yachting industry is keeping up with sustainable travel trends and demands.

Shipyards, Lürssen and Feadship, formed the nonprofit Water Revolution Foundation to create a science-backed approach to yacht building and drive sustainability in the superyacht industry. Other shipyards, such as Ferretti Group, are shifting toward making boat manufacturing more environmentally friendly by cutting electricity use by up to 79 percent. Reducing the carbon footprint of the yachting world helps preserve the element that makes the industry thrive — our oceans and their ecosystems.

There are small ways to be conscious of yachting’s larger impact on the environment. Whether you’re a yacht owner, crew, or charter guest, here are 5 ways to make your yacht more sustainable. Keep these tips in mind for your next yacht charter or luxury vacation.

1. Implement Green Products Throughout The Yacht

Provision your galley, cabins, and heads to be environmentally friendly. Ask the crew to identify single-use plastic products onboard your yacht and ask them to seek alternatives. That could mean swapping plastic straws and stirrers for metal ones, adopting reusable tote bags, or substituting paper towels for recyclable bamboo towelettes. Implement natural, chemical-free toiletries, cosmetics, cleaning products, and sunscreens onboard your yacht or boat to prevent harm to marine environments.

Denison Tip: Consider using Ecoworks Marine products for your yacht or boat. They provide the marine industry with eco-friendly cleaning solutions for interior yacht cleaning, exterior yacht cleaning, and engine rooms.

2. Practice Proper Waste Disposal

Yachts produce a lot of waste. One way to reduce your carbon footprint while onboard is to reuse, reduce, and recycle. Add a recycle bin (if there’s not one already) to your yacht and implement proper waste disposal by the crew. If you’re chartering a yacht, you can add that to your preference sheet to help accommodate waste reduction.

Denison Tip: Try implementing a zero-waste initiative to encourage crew and guests to reduce, reuse, and recycle as effectively as possible and seek eco-friendly alternatives.

3. Be Sensitive Toward Boat Maintenance

Boat maintenance plays a huge role in promoting a sustainable yacht. Prevent oils and other toxic chemicals from draining into the ocean by inspecting and maintaining your boat’s bilge. Ask the crew to use non-toxic cleaning products when detailing your yacht. Water that runs off the boat during a scrub down directly impacts the aquatic environment, so it’s important to be mindful of the chemicals that seep into the ocean as it may harm eco-systems.

Denison Tip: Prevent bilge pollution by checking the pump for unusual growths, unpleasant odors, or mildew. Proactively managing your vessel reduces harmful environmental impacts, and also extends the life of your engine and boat.

4. Eat And Buy Local

Improving the superyacht industry’s environmental footprint encompasses all departments, including the chefs. As a yacht owner or charter guest, ask the chef to shop organically, locally, and seasonally for menus. You might as well cook with local ingredients when you’re at a foreign destination, such as the Bahamas. This not only makes it easier for the chef to plan, but it also saves money, supports local communities and economies, and reduces food miles.

Denison Tip: Try the local seafood at a tropical or coastal destination. There’s nothing like eating fresh mahi-mahi in Key West or fresh oysters in Nantucket.

5. Implement A Drinking Water Filtration System

It’s easy to get into a habit of buying and drinking from plastic water bottles. But it’s even easier to get into a habit of refilling a water bottle. Implement a drinking water filtration system on your yacht so that you can eliminate the use of plastic water bottles. The company, Water Without Waste provides water filtration system options for the yachting industry. The WwW Compact Power product range allows filtration and purification on the highest level to remove bacteria, viruses, antibiotics, pesticides, metals, and microplastics while adding minerals to guarantee superior alkaline/mineralized drinking water. With that type of innovation, you get healthy drinking water by direct flow (no storage or expansion tanks).

Denison Tip: Design custom, reusable water bottles and wine tumblers for your yacht or boat. Place your yacht’s branding on these products to upgrade your next charter or vacation and encourage sustainable yachting.

A more sustainable future in yachting starts with the little things. From the shipyard to the cleaning products, you can take steps toward implementing a more sustainable yachting experience as a boat owner or charter guest. Contact a Denison yacht broker or charter manager to find your next sustainable yacht.