Greenwashing comes in many different forms, from misleading to downright false information. Yachting is no stranger to greenwashing. As has been said many times before, there will probably never be a ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ superyacht due to the inherent and almost unavoidable impacts throughout its lifetime. An Oxfam briefing paper on Carbon Inequality estimated that the annual average carbon footprint of a superyacht is equivalent to 860 years of emissions of the average person.

To avoid greenwashing, wording should be made to focus on improving a yacht’s impact, highlighting instead aspects that are more ‘environmentally friendly’ rather than claiming anything is entirely sustainable.

It’s often the significant and visible impacts that lead many to be eager to develop and employ more sustainable goods and services used on board. In many cases there are better choices to be made, such as less harmful antifouling solutions, more sustainable alternative timber options such as cork, non-toxic cleaning products and items such as ropes or even crew clothing made from recycled materials.

But care needs to be taken that there isn’t an accidental trade-off and that options give truly improved impacts over their lifetime. For example, recycled materials can be used for many products, but sometimes they can be less durable than the unrecycled item and so more would need to be produced. A more durable material may be used but will still have to be disposed of before the end of its life in what is a more difficult and impactful way.

So beware to avoid virtue signalling, and only choose products that will truly reduce impact throughout its use. One way to do this is to look for those using the ‘sustainable’ term correctly – as it can often be a buzzword without the efforts being made to make this a reality – by working across all ESG aspects rather than just the environment.

A similar trade-off can occur for some of the alternative fuels such as methanol, hydrogen and HVO etc. While they can provide reduced emissions, their impact can be very variable: as discussed in our Methanol’s Coding Conundrum article, the carbon intensity of methanol varies significantly on the production methods, and while hydrogen is promising, the energy required to generate and store it can lead to increased emissions. HVO has the best environmental impact when it is used from reused waste materials such as cooking oil and oil by-products; however, in some instances, it’s also made from palm oil. The plantations needed for the production of palm oil have contributed to deforestation and other environmental issues.

As such, the best way to be sure options are genuinely less impactful than the business-as-usual case is to look at the supporting data and any achieved third-party certified/accredited businesses and products. For example, the Life Cycle Assessment methodology means comparisons can be made as to whether an option is genuinely improved over both various impact sources and lifespan stages. This is why Water Revolution Foundation uses this methodology for its Hub of Verified Solutions, which can provide the confidence needed to choose products with less impact.

Data and other scientific backing behind these claims are likely to increase as a new EU Directive on Green Claims being finalised this year will come into force in the coming years. The new directive outlaws generic or unverifiable claims and misleading product information, and requires all claims relating to a product’s impact on the environment – its longevity, reparability, composition, production and usage – to be backed up by verifiable sources. This directive will bring more consequences to those who would look to greenwash their products.

Legal consequences have already been a common occurrence globally prior to this directive. In 2022, BNY Mellon and Goldman Sachs were separately fined $1.5 million and $4 million respectively by the  US Securities and Exchange Commission for ESG failings, including misleading customers about ESG investments and failures to implement written policies and procedures regarding ESG factors. Other cases have focused on the marketing of products, similar to the KLM lawsuit. For example, Keurig was fined $2.2 million by the Canadian Competition Bureau in 2022 for making misleading claims about single-use coffee pods, suggesting they were recyclable when they were not widely accepted by recyclers.

It’s these consequences, among others, that have led to a rise in ‘greenhushing’. Greenhushing is withholding information on climate strategy for the fear that releasing it will bring some form of reputational risk, such as accusations of greenwashing. Yachting’s secretive nature can result in being seen to be similar to greenhushing, because the positive actions carried out across the industry, as discussed in the Vessels for Change article, are not often widely shared with or highlighted to the wider public.

While there may be a reluctance to promote these efforts, on the contrary, sharing information is an effective way to understand the different impacts of choices and hence which results in the best outcome. Not only does sharing this information improve the industry’s image to outsiders but also being transparent with collected information relevant to the ESG of products and services can help those across value chains make better less impactful choices.

A particularly effective form of transparency is through non-financial ESG-focused reports, sharing strategies, related data and case studies to show the genuine effort being made that can be a form of inspiration and direction for others.

As more people conduct information-gathering for their own purposes, the process of creating these reports, becoming third-party verified and complying with regulatory or other requests for information, such as Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, will become easier and more familiar.

With ESG and sustainability become more mainstream and required, it’s important to know how to search out which courses of action are truly better to avoid falling for greenwashed options. Gathering information is the best way to combat greenwashing claims and to demonstrate the genuine efforts the industry is making to improve impacts.

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