The Yacht Transparency Index (YETI): Sustainability in Superyachting

Currently in yachting, conversations frequently focus on sustainability and efforts towards lessening yachts’ environmental impact. It’s not a simple task, though. Despite an abundance of general information about emissions, power consumption, and related topics, the superyacht industry and superyacht owners have lacked an objective way to judge whether some yachts are actually “greener” than others. That’s where the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index comes in, and is making a difference.

The index is a tool from the Water Revolution Foundation, a non-profit focused on preserving the oceans and simultaneously diminishing yachting’s impact on them. In development for the past four years, the index has led to the establishment of a benchmark by which existing and in-development projects can evaluate themselves. Robert van Tol, the executive director of the Water Revolution Foundation, explains the details in this Megayacht News Radio podcast episode.

As you’ll learn, the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index relies on real data that owners, their crew, and/or their representatives provide. The Water Revolution Foundation team analyzes that information side by side against data from AIS, “to understand what is actually the average operational profile of the fleet,” van Tol explains.

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Transcript

(voiceover): 0:50

Welcome to Megayacht News Radio, the first and longest running podcast series dedicated to the large yacht industry, hosted by Diane Byrne, the editor of MegayachtNews.com. We feature conversations with engaging and inspiring people in yachting, from shipyard CEOs to designers, from yacht managers to young entrepreneurs, and yes, even owners. You'll learn how they got into yachting, how they're building better businesses, and especially how they're helping people like you get more enjoyment out of the yachting lifestyle.

Diane Byrne: 1:42

Welcome everyone. In yachting there's currently a lot of talk about sustainability, as there should be. Industry stakeholders, yacht managers, owners, representatives, owners themselves, even crew members are all exploring options to ensure that they lessen the environmental impact when it comes to how yachts operate and are enjoyed. But it's not a simple task. Despite an abundance of general information being available for years really about emissions, power consumption, and things like that. The superyacht industry has not had an objective way to judge whether some yachts are actually quote unquote greener than others. That's where the Water Revolution Roundation and its industry first Yacht Environmental Transparency Index come in. If you are a longtime listener of Megayacht News Radio, you may remember that we had Robert van Tol, the founder of Water Revolution Foundation, on as a guest in 2019. He and his team are actually already working on the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index back then. it now includes an extraordinary amount of information, which has led to the establishment of a benchmark by which existing and in design superyachts alike can evaluate themselves, and even learn to improve. Robert is here to explain how this index came to be, and how you can have your yacht evaluated. So Robert, welcome back to Megayacht News Radio. It's good to have you here.

Robert van Tol: 3:17

Thank you, Diane, it's good to be back.

Diane Byrne: 3:19

Yeah, I can't believe it's been since 2019. That's crazy how fast that went by.

Robert van Tol: 3:25

I know, there was something like COVID disturbing a few things on the on the way but

Diane Byrne: 3:31

Yeah, absolutely. Well, good to have you back. You know, in all these years that I've known you and we've been talking about sustainability, a lot of our conversations have centered around credibility. Credibility, obviously, is really crucial for anything, but particularly for sustainability discussions. Understandably, though, I think some people are skeptical. They hear things and they read things that don't actually turn out to be true. So if you were to sit down with someone who might be one of these skeptics, how would you explain to them in simple terms, what Water Revolution Foundation's approaches are and how they are, I should say, indeed credible?

Robert van Tol: 4:15

Well, thanks for raising that important question, because indeed, that's very important to emphasize and clarify, and especially also how the tool that we have been co-developing, I should say, because it was a joint industry project, stands out in that regard. So I'm very happy to answer that one. It starts with the methodology. If as long as you follow the right scientific methodology, which in our case is lifecycle assessment, meaning you always look at the entire lifecycle of any component, then you really make sure you are not just shifting impacts from one stage to another in the lifecycle, but you really have the complete picture and as such, can judge whether a solution is indeed more efficient in the end with what the goal is obviously, so that is one that is the methodology to is data. If you have reliable and direct sources for data, you know what you are working with, and you are sure that that is the right and basically factual information to base further developments on another important factor is support base. So in this project, we had no less than 20 organizations involved, which also costs let's say that the delivery of the Yeti 1.0 took maybe slightly longer but You can therefore assume that it wasn't very well considered process and decision tree so to say. So every crossroad has been considered very well with all experts in the field involved, and therefore, decisions are made, and but also justifiable and transparent. And that last part ties into the next reason of credibility that everything that this index is existing of is transparent. And that is not only for the the developers, let's say a way to identify themselves with this end result, but also for the user to foster trust, and to actually understand the results because that's my last point, the results of Yeti is actually a starting point and not a goal in itself. Meaning that the results will open up the discussion on how this score came about, what were the items where points were gained or lost? And what are indeed, as you already mentioned, ways to further improve the environmental credentials of an existing yard. So it's really the starting point of further conversation and support, rather than a tool to only judge.

Diane Byrne: 7:19

Right, yeah, that makes a lot of sense along those, those same lines. Where did the idea start? How, how did you all wrap your brains around where to actually begin reading the index?

Robert van Tol: 7:34

Well, all those credits are deserved by a senior design specialist at Feadship devolve naval architects, his name is Bram Jongepier, he developed the starting point of YETI himself because he was frustrated, he had worked on a couple of ambitious projects that along the way of let's say, negotiation, and contract, negotiate, contracts, specifications, were downgraded, mostly due to cost savings. And he was very much looking for a way to visualize the technology developed and proposed to showcase next to the cost, and also a way that if its client teams have reasons to stripe out some technology due to cost, what that means for the ambition of the project. And he was so certain that this struggle that he had, was shared by his industry peers, that he organized a a meeting in March 2019, where it was decided, well, first of all, applaud it, and then decided that this project is very much needed for the industry to move further in the Yeah, with the topic of sustainability and as such, organize it as a joint industry project through the water evolution platform.

Diane Byrne: 9:00

Very good. So walk us through the process of an owner submitting their yacht to be evaluated by YETI. What do they need to provide you with? And then in turn, what type of report do they receive back?

Robert van Tol: 9:16

Yeah, so the input data is very crucial. It's rather technical, though, so but all owners should have this information in their possession. Otherwise, their captain or engineer on board will certainly have this information in their possession. So it's a data input sheet that would need to be completed. And there's ranges from speed power curves to install power, engine types and models, generator types and models, whether there are batteries on board, if there are any solar panels installed. So basically, all the all that kind of technical information, in addition to the EOS general parameters, like rust on it, and length. So that allows us to do calculations on two main topics. And three main topics I should say. One is propulsion to the underwater ship, the main engines, the propellers, that that that part that makes the ship move. The second one is on the hotel load. So even if he doesn't move, there is obviously fuel consumption, energy consumption by its hotel load. And then there's also a production of heat and what happens to that heat, either you need it for appliances, or it's a result of other mechanisms working on board, which is a waste heat to how is it being dealt with and that is also important for the determination of the score. So once we have the technical information, our team is running the data through our calculator, and we are able to feed back the score. And if the clients and the teams want, we can also expand on this score by a feedback report showcasing how this the yacht scores compared to other yacht other assess yachts in the fleet in their size range that makes most sense. It will also come with as we just discussed this this analysis of where points were gained and lost and and also what are the underlying environmental parameters in the score. And, indeed, to be constructive to, from our experience, and what we have seen a couple of pointers on where we could further elaborate on and that is on, and to meant to improve the environmental credentials of the yard. Now, I would like to add that the Yeti 1.0 scope is fully on the operational efficiency. So it looks at how efficient the yard operates benchmarked on an average operational profile. And that is one of the basically the pillars under our YETI tool is a complete parallel study based on as data to understand what is actually the average operational profile of the fleet. And we see that although yachts are all very unique, and of course, the big distinction between motor and sailing yachts that we do see similarities in that average operational profile. Which means or what we found is on average, so they're, they're always deviations. But on average, 10% of the time, yachts are cruising 33% they spend on anchor and the rest of the time they spent in the marina. So if that's the average profile, then if you benchmark a yacht against her profile, you can really understand how efficient she runs and how she compares to other yachts. That's one of the main parts, let's say, of the Yeti tool.

Diane Byrne: 13:12

That information you just gave about how much time the yachts spend at anchor and how much time they spent at the marina is fascinating. Because we're always talking about how somebody's yachts are different, you know, a 30 meter is so different from a 50 meter, even 50 meters can be so different in terms of their design and engineering. But really, the way that everybody's using their yachts is so similar, it's remarkable, it makes a lot of sense when you really think about what you see, on an average summer day, or an average winter day, maybe down in the Caribbean. But I don't think any of us has really stopped too much to think about that

Robert van Tol: 13:49

is crucial, and especially if you want to compare them because if you separate too much, so also, for instance, sailing for motor yachts, and you will only compare sailing yachts with each other, still not really, let's say a full information comparison. So there are, let's say, reasons to separate but also reasons to combine these kinds of analysis. And in the end, if you have the right data, you can do all of that and just determine the level of detail. So it's a really exciting journey, I should also emphasize that the collaboration really reached a new industry standard, there was really such a strong drive for a tool that everybody felt that the industry needs in order to to progress and continue sort of level playing field in this regard. And to sort of when this is their further compete, and that was really rewarding and special. And yeah, that that was equally important to the result. I would say,

Diane Byrne: 14:57

Well, yeah, because whenever whenever you're striving to improve even just your own efforts, you always need something as the benchmark. So without a benchmark, you're really just kind of assuming that, okay, well, here's an industry standard, or here's the average perhaps among our competitors, and therefore we're doing better, same worse. But you're really at the end of the day just grasping at straws, because you don't truly have the right data.

Robert van Tol: 15:27

Yeah, well, that data is always a challenge. We also realize that the real operational data of the fleet of the yachts out there in navigation is not always known by for instance, shipyards. So it's very crucial that as a general industry, learning that we are really going to track the data because we So needed in order to improve and know be in tune with the arts and and there are organizations in our industry that has the data, but it's not centrally organized or let alone shared with those that needed to further improve. So it's very logical thing. But yeah, you need to make it happen. And the mindset needs to be like that. So also, in this group, we didn't have data sharing among the participants, but there was a great willingness to share data with us a central point, and we could then analyze it and feed that back with sort of anonymized graphs, which was really educational for the group as well. So that all kinds of side benefits, for instance, is operational profile, it may, it may be a gut feeling for many in the industry. But having it statistically proven, will also help to address all kinds of product developments and with suppliers, for instance, or focus the debates not only on the propulsion side, with hybrid and diesel electric, but also especially tackled at that hotel. Oh, that is on 100% of the time. Because let's say the cruising, or the propulsion part is then 10%. But the energy consumption between proposing and hotel is more or less 5050. So that is also already an interesting and important confirmation on where we should focus on in our efforts to reduce.

Diane Byrne: 17:20

Right, right, absolutely. So how many yachts are actually in the index in terms of all this data that you've collected?

Robert van Tol: 17:28

Throughout the process, we run very specific calculations of as many varying yards as possible to really have that reliability in the in the results as well. And we are currently having a fleet of 70 yards assessed that then subsequently function as reference. So when we calculate a new yard, we can compare it to those 70. In the already assessed fleet, so the more yards we can assess, the more reliable that comparison becomes, as well.

Diane Byrne: 18:06

Okay, and then in terms of the benchmark that you've been able to create? Can you share any overall statistics in terms of where there's good news in terms of the fleet? And where there's room for improvement? You're already we've already talked about the discovery that the yachts are in the marinas, most of the time. So clearly, like you were just saying a minute ago, the hotel load consumption is a huge area for improvement. But what about what about the other side? Is there the any? I don't want to say that was necessarily bad news. But is there something that's maybe encouraging in terms of the benchmark?

Robert van Tol: 18:48

Yes, encouraging, I would say is how well, yachts are generally designed for sailing. So the underwater ship, the whole layout, let's say for for the propulsion side is really advanced. So in the Yeti scores, we generally see a very good performance of the propulsion side, where it's Yeah, can go south is that hotel load that is really sometimes through the roof. And we have been checking data, because we rely on the input data, of course, to really double check and triple check to say that, you know, is this really accurate, and then sometimes we saw that it is just very high and inefficient. The good news is that it's easier to change consumers and energy flows of hotel load than changing the on the watershed. So in that way, there are there there's room for improvement, but it's also possible to improve. So that's the good news. And I would say, we can generally share a compliment for the underwater ship performance, which is a good sign, it can always further improve, I'm sure. Not not always are all, let's say possibilities explored or there are other reasons for a particular choice. But this visualisation of of the performance is probably and hopefully helping to address that. And not just skip those kinds of topics in negotiations or, or designs.

Diane Byrne: 20:28

You know, one of the things he just said about changing behaviors, changing human behaviors, it reminded me of when I was a child. My father used to get nuts when the electric bill would come sometimes because the electric bill would be quite high. And when my sister and I were teenagers, even even when we were little kids We were constantly leaving lights on in certain rooms. And he was always running around saying, what are we friends with a power company. So maybe that's kind of something that's going on with the yachts where, you know, there's there's certain power that does not need to be on all the time, and people just aren't really paying attention to it so much. And that's maybe one of the easiest areas of, of improvement in terms of human behavior.

Robert van Tol: 21:13

Absolutely. And therefore, the operational data is so crucial to really learn if systems were well developed and not overpowered or over equipped, versus how it's being used. So I think there's so much room for improvement already. Of course, there's a lot of debate about alternative fuels to actually change the source of energy, which is a very promising side of of developments. But I think we can make the biggest difference. And it's also an obligation to just reduce the amount of energy that is needed to either propel or run the app that is, let's say the key focus, and then of course, the energy source is going to make a huge difference as well. But it doesn't mean that you can just continue the energy consumption as is. And that also, basically is the the opportunity for the supply side of our industry to come up with smarter technologies, which, in their defense, then also should be recognized and promoted. And especially in a yeti score be translated. So people start to see the benefits. And hopefully we can, through market acceptance and adoption, really make the Yeti score sort of new challenge for for clients in the end, to showcase what kind of yacht they own and, and built and in that way, reduce the energy consumption and therefore impact of the fleet to hopefully this simple indicator with a complex, let's say, calculator behind is really helping every actor in the industry, from charter agents to designer to shipyard to supplier to really put this focus on improving the environmental credentials of the arts and, and understand what makes the difference. And where, let's say to the most effective efforts can can focus on

Diane Byrne: 23:27

you know, in terms of making continuing to allow this to develop and sustainability really to evolve more. A lot of the discussions overall and yawning I think tend to be more on the owners cruise and guests side, it's this idea of the hotel load is consuming a lot the the, you know, the power consumption with the generators, etc. As much as that's important to focus on, like you said a few minutes ago, the suppliers are actually doing some things to try to change the impact overall. So that makes me think that obviously there are broader educational and transparency opportunities and responsibilities in the industry. So where should companies that are so motivated, start with with education and with their own transparency?

Robert van Tol: 24:25

Yeah, that's a very good point. I think education and collaboration is, in my opinion, key because let's say there are many suppliers that already have solutions, but they just didn't find the the entrance among decision makers with this solution, because there was simply a focus on on other things, I guess. So it's also that this, this conversation and common focus we need to introduce in the sector on this topic. And collaboration is in my view key to really understand the challenges for let's say party a in the supply chain and the solutions of party B and how to how to connect those. If I can give an example. I've I've had many conversations obviously with for instance, interior designers, but also interior builders. And then I learned that from an interior design with particular choices of material and quantities and shapes. This interior builder had so much waste to get it right. have already an exotic material. So for all reasons that you probably now think of this was this needs in provement and this needs sort of a conversation like, okay, come both at the table. And let's discuss this because we shouldn't do more of this. But then there's reluctance with the manufacturer because they don't want to, you know, complain or potentially lose another project with this designer. And the designer said, why didn't they tell me because I was not aware of this. So sometimes our role as water pollution is just to be sort of the Messenger of particular anonymized feedback, if necessary, to just raise that awareness and raise that that topic and discussion to have. And then already solutions are probably available, because it's not always rocket science. But it's just to have Yeah, to put an emphasis on those kinds of topics and opportunities to improve.

Diane Byrne: 26:40

I'm sure that happens, even more than any of us realize, too, there are companies that they see a problem, and they want to say something, but they're afraid. So they don't say anything, and then nothing improves. And then a casual conversation that you have with somebody unveils that problem. And then so you bring it to the other party, in this case, it was a supplier having the issue, and then you talk to the interior designer, and all of a sudden they think, Well, why didn't anybody tell us but it's fear. At the end of the day, it's fear, that keeps so many people from opening their mouth. So the more that reluctance and that fear, then it's going to improve.

Robert van Tol: 27:18

Yeah, of course, stakes are high in this industry. So that might be really a sort of defensive atmosphere. But I hope that we can break through that and see the benefits of collaboration and helping each other also in less direct stages behind each other in the supply chain. So for instance, in the design stage, if you can already take into account the refit stage, which is many years, I hope, after after design and delivery of the of the yacht, but we should all be honest that an interior, for instance, could last forever, especially how it is often maintained. But it doesn't, because at some point that a client may change or owner might change, or the taste changes. And there will be maybe not entirely but components taken out. If you take that scenario into account, when you create and build it, probably you make the life of the refit company much easier plus the opportunity to reuse or give a second life to any of those components. So yeah, it's really thinking that sort of circular and helping the next sort of partner in the supply chain, and throughout the life of the art.

Diane Byrne: 28:38

Well, there's a lot of food for thought. That's for sure. Robert, thank you so much for joining the podcast today. This has been really interesting and enlightening. And like you said that the tool the index is quite technical, to certain degree, but the information that it provides is definitely understandable and usable by by all stakeholders from the owners to the project managers, shipyards, designers, you name it. Thanks so much.

Robert van Tol: 29:04

My pleasure and the tool will be continued to be developed. And we have many more projects that we work on so kindly inviting everyone to familiarize themselves with our organization and projects.

Diane Byrne: 29:16

Yes, definitely YETI 2.0 Is is in the works. We know that for sure. So the more people who contribute the better. Wonderful. Absolutely. Those of you who are interested in learning more about YETI and having your yachts evaluated, you can visit the Water Revolution Foundation's website, which is waterrevolutionfoundation.org. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Until next time, I'm Diane Byrne.

(voiceover): 29:45

That wraps up this episode of Megayacht News Radio. Thanks for listening. If you like what you hear, please share the word on social media and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Audible, iHeartRadio, or Spotify. And of course to learn more about what's going on in the world of large yacht cruising, new constructio,n and design, check out our daily updated website, the award winning megayachtnews.com