Area characterisation:
The Waterevolution solution represents a practical example that nature conservation and human progress are not mutually exclusive. It is a credible and accessible technological model, based on Computational Sustainability, that can promote general welfare in ways that support and even enhance our planet’s natural assets. The model links together industry-focused and scientific-based computational sustainability with marine conservation and is able to provide a win-win situation. It allows a substantial reduction of the environmental and energy footprint of the industry through an optimisation of the production process that is able to generate significant cost savings, a part of which is reinvested into marine conservation programs In the pilot project the savings were reinvested into various marine conservation projects including the strategic planning of the IUCN Joint SSC-WCPA Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (started in February 2015) to develop Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs). Thanks to this financial support, the Criteria for IMMA identification (currently undergoing public scrutiny) were drafted and broad consensus and full support on IMMAs were gained within the relevant IUCN Commissions and Sub-Committees. The funding allowed participation of the two main researchers as experts to EBSA Workshops organised by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Sri Lanka and Dubai), and the provision of information on IMMA development to potential institutional partners such as the French Marine Protected Areas Agency, Pew Charitable Trusts, UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Secretariat of the Convention on Migratory Species, and Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, particularly in view of a possible joint organisation of the South Pacific region Year of the Whale 2016. The Waterevolution model has the potential to not only drive changes into the super yacht business, where the pilot project was implemented, but also within the entire yachting sector and the maritime cluster as a whole while generating structural funding opportunities for marine conservation initiatives worldwide.
Objective:
Waterevolution is a comprehensive, evidence-based model that involves a sustainable corporate management approach to reduce environmental footprint, which generates structural funding to support marine science and conservation projects and facilitates industry commitment to ocean responsibility.
Financing:
No information
Potential impacts/benefits:
The implementation of the Waterevolution model translated into a significant reduction of the environmental footprint of the shipyard including reduction by 20% of energy consumption and CO2 emissions - this reduction rises up to 30% when dismantling (removal of toxic and hazardous materials) and recycling are considered. Substantial reduction of water pollution and seabed degradation and at least a 10% costs reduction thanks to the process optimisation. Consequent reinvestment into long-term marine conservation projects including the Tethys Research Institute’s research on the Pelagos Sanctuary, the IUCN WCPA-Marine Marine Mammal Task Force strategic planning work on the Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) and several community-based marine conservation initiatives, conferences, awareness activities and communication campaigns for ocean sustainability and a capacity building initiative for Italian MPAs.
Beneficiaries
- Marine conservation organisations
- Maritime cluster industries
- Local communities
Actions:
Waterevolution is a comprehensive, evidence-based model that involves a sustainable corporate management approach to reduce environmental footprint, which generates structural funding to support marine science and conservation projects and facilitates industry commitment to ocean responsibility. The model was developed by Eulabor Institute in partnership with the University of Bologna and was then tested within the Italian super yacht shipyard VSY. The production process of VSY was optimised through the implementation of the computational sustainability tool. The optimisation process translated into a significant reduction of the environmental footprint of the shipyard and, at the same time, was able to generate financial savings. A percentage of these saving were invested to support marine conservation projects by several organisations including: the Tethys Research Institute research on the Pelagos Sanctuary; the IUCN WCPA-Marine Marine Mammal Task Force strategic planning work on the Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs); as well as several marine conservation and awareness activities, communication campaigns for ocean sustainability and a capacity building initiative for Italian MPAs.
Computational Sustainability is an interdisciplinary tool that integrates techniques from computer science, information science, operations research, applied mathematics, and statistics to serve the purpose of balancing environmental, economic, and societal needs for sustainable development. This tool applies a cradle to cradle approach to production chains and products, by extending the system to the assessment of the whole ship life cycle (construction, shipping, dismantling), and allowing a substantial reduction of the environmental and energy footprint for a particular company by taking into account its financial cost, energy and environmental impact. Computational sustainability allows the company to break down every stage of the production process - the entire life cycle of a product up to the recycling - and evaluates the sustainability elements at each stage by measuring the cost benefit indicators including: - Support yacht designers with mathematical modelling to define, compare and assess alternative solutions along all steps of the yacht design and production - Assess material accounting and a number of environmental indicators along the process
Enabling factors
- Willingness of companies to recondition their core business to embrace energy and resource efficiency
- Favouring economic and technological models that allow optimization of industrial processes, while at the same time reducing environmental impact
- Adoption of a multidisciplinary and holistic approach and implementation of a cradle to cradle perspective embracing the whole ship life cycle (construction, shipping, dismantling)
Lessons learnt:
Support yacht designers to define, compare and assess alternative solutions and yacht concepts, guide them along all steps of the yacht design proposing alternatives and assess material and activities accounting and a number of environmental indicators along the process. Develop mathematical modelling that provides a scientific support for measuring, defining and comparing alternative processes and use matrix models linking activities with environmental impacts and matrix models linking activities with costs/economic benefits. Along the process the model has also to account for energy consumption, water consumption, CO2 emissions, and raw material used
Contacts:
http://www.eulaborinstitute.org/
The Waterevolution model develops strategic partnerships between maritime cluster companies and marine conservation. It is based on computational sustainability and allows a substantial reduction of the environmental and energy footprint of the industry through an optimization of the production process. The implementation of this model translates also into significant cost savings, a part of which is reinvested into marine conservation programs, e.g. marine protected area planning and financing.