The world governing body for sailing sports launches its Sustainability Agenda 2030

World Sailing has launched its sustainability agenda targeting a series of aspects across sailing including events, training, venues and facilities. 

Sustainability in sailing events will be addressed through measures such as incorporating sustainability standards in all bid documents for venue partners, abolishing the use of single use plastics during all the events by 2020 and reducing carbon consumption by 50 percent by 2024 compared to 2018 levels.

Other key areas that the World Sailing Sustainability Commission has pledged to address are the protection of the ecosystem’s health and biodiversity, carbon footprint reduction and promotion of resource efficiency.

Sustainable technical standards are one of the key areas that will be addressed with the sailing body has pledging to collaborate with marine industry associations and other actors to promote sustainable equipment and maintanance practices. 

It will also create a framework for measuring waste, recyclability, and the life cycle for World Sailing class manufactures to adapt, and will work on research to phase out composites used in boat building.

In addition, it will ensure that sustainability is incorporated into sailing education through teaching and coaching frameworks. 

One of the pledges to ensure that will be to integrate sustainability related requirements into the criteria for an organisation to become an ‘approved training centre’ and it will ensure all Member National Authorities (MNAs) around the world have an element of sustainability training embedded within their sail training by 2030. 

The Sustainability Agenda 2030 is linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to the International Olympic Committee’s Sustainability Strategy.

The agenda was presented by Mike Golding OBE, World Sailing Sustainability Commission Chairman and Dan Reading, World Sailing Sustainability Programme Manager during a sustainability event last week.

Mike Golding OBE said: "My role as Chairman of the Sustainability Commission Chairman is to work alongside and help to co-ordinate the members who are all passionate experts in their field. My goal is to ensure every contributing voice is heard and that we create a balanced sustainability agenda that reaches all the way out to 2030 which is quite a bold statement”.

Although he acknowledged that the Agenda did not cover every single sustainability aspect, he stated that it is “a very good early effort”.

He added: “To make this work we need to tackle all areas with equal vigour and make all areas of our sport more sustainable”.

Andy Hunt, World Sailing CEO said: "World Sailing has the opportunity to bring about substantial change across the Sport that can tangibly contribute to global sustainability”.

He added: "Thanks to the work put in by World Sailing's Sustainability Commission and open dialogue with our key stakeholders, we have clear objectives and deliverables that will be implemented across our events, at World Sailing's headquarters and within the global sailing community”.

The Sustainability Agenda 2030 will enter a four-month consultation process and the targets will be finalised in May 2018.

You can access the full 40-page Agenda with the full list of objectives and measures to address sustainability in sailing sports here.