It’s about the cost (not the price)
To improve behaviour it is first essential to put in place a reliable means with which to monitor progress
Wouldn’t it be great, when we buy things like sails, blocks, ropes, wet weather gear, antifoul paint – or even a whole new boat – to be able to make informed ethical choices and support brands that respect the environment and human health? We can already do that when buying cars, appliances, coffee and many other products, so why not marine kit and boats? There will soon be an efficient way for marine designers and manufacturers who care about the environment – and many of them do – to improve the sustainability and overall environmental impact of their products and services, and to show their customers what they’ve achieved. It’s called MarineShift360. The key to this is a business
process called life cycle assessment (LCA), which tracks and calculates the sustainability of products all the way from sourcing and transport of raw materials, through manufacture, packaging, distribution, retail and use, to recycling or disposal. Only by considering the entire life cycle of a product can we assess its impact on the environment in a meaningful way. Designers can make responsible choices while selecting materials and production processes, and ultimately create a product that is better for the consumers and the planet. It’s an approach that has become
common – in some cases legislated – across many industries, including construction, aerospace, automotive and apparel, as manufacturers have worked to better understand their products and mitigate their impacts.
70 SEAHORSE
Companies such as Canon, Levi Strauss, Kraft Foods and Mazda have used in-house LCA tools to lower carbon emissions, reduce packaging and lower energy usage. The LCA studies that support these changes allow companies to communicate their efforts to consumers with heightened credibility. Why should we care? Our
manufacturing activities impact the use of non-renewable energy sources, production of plastic waste, polluting emissions into air and water, not to mention the ever-increasing issue of what to do with all the yachts that are coming to their end of life. The marine industry still mostly operates with a linear take-make-waste approach; LCA offers the first step towards a circular model that aims for the elimination of waste through clever design of products. Life cycle assessment makes sound economic sense for a boatbuilder: if sustainable design choices help to sell just one more yacht, LCA analysis has probably paid for itself many times over. For a community that relies so heavily on a healthy environment for our work, our enjoyment and our income, sustainable choices need to be front of mind. The ethical reasons for using a tool
that can run a life cycle assessment are clear, compelling and obvious, but there’s also a strong practical argument for doing it. First, it flags up inefficiencies within the supply chain, which can lead to cost savings as well as environmental benefits. Second, it often stimulates useful
Above: UK-based RS Sailing, one of the world’s most prolific manufacturers of racing dinghies, is among the first companies in the marine industry to adopt the MarineShift360 life-cycle assessment tool, which allows RS to ensure the environmental impact of their boats remains as small as possible. Other early adopters include Emkay Plastics, Wessex Resins and Multiplast, which builds many of the world’s fastest grand prix ocean racing yachts
innovation in design and production. Third, legislation increasingly makes manufacturers responsible for end- of-life products, and LCA is the best way to prepare for it. The marine industry takes its lead
from automotive in many ways, and LCA doesn’t need to be an exception. The automotive industry has been working with LCA tools for almost 20 years, successfully using them to identify efficiency hotspots and ultimately making sure that each new model represents better environmental properties over its entire life cycle, compared to its outgoing predecessor. Already, automakers have to ensure 85 per cent of each vehicle they sell in the EU can be recycled, and it’s only a matter of time before boatbuilders face similar regulations. One tangible example comes from
Jaguar Land Rover, which has been successfully applying a LCA model, investing heavily in research, engineering and manufacturing to deliver innovative solutions that reduce the environmental impact of their vehicles throughout their entire life cycle. By reducing the weight of a vehicle’s body and components, they can make cars more efficient, while delivering the performance expected by customers. Some of their vehicles use revolutionary all-aluminium bodies that significantly reduce their weight, with a new lightweight modified aluminium alloy that allows for a higher proportion of recycled content, uses 95 per cent less energy to manufacture and produces
RS SAILING
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