She hasn’t even set off on her first cruise yet, but the first flybridge yacht built by Royal Huisman, Twizzle, is already making history. Her owner is offsetting the emissions not just from her current and future fuel consumption but also from the energy and materials used to build her.
To do so, the 57.5-meter (189-foot) Twizzle has been enrolled in a program with Yacht Carbon Offset, whose staff is quite familiar with the yachting industry overall. The firm works with notable companies like BWA Yachting, Curvelle, International Yacht Collection, PrivatSea, VSY Superyachts, and the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association. Yacht Carbon Offset offers Lloyds Register Quality Assurance certification, which confirms that a company’s sustainability strategies are trustworthy and comply with recognized mechanisms like the Kyoto Protocol. It also ensures that the emissions claims are verifiable and accurate.
To that end, Yacht Carbon Offset is guaranteeing that the emissions resulting from Twizzle’s future cruises (including charters) will be matched, ton for ton, by emissions savings from eco-friendly energy projects. While Yacht Carbon Offset assists other superyachts in compensating for their carbon footprint, the firm’s managing director, Mark Robinson, says Twizzle’s owner has taken the approach further than any other yacht to date, “by extending the scope to include both the energy and the principal materials of her construction.”
Regarding construction, the carbon offset is a one-time expense, based on the estimated energy that Royal Huisman used for cutting and welding the steel plus using other materials and installing systems. It also applies to the actual aluminum and steel content of the yacht herself. Just as it is doing for the fuel consumption credits, Yacht Carbon Offset determines exactly how many credits are needed to purchase by calculating the emissions from a megayacht’s engines, gensets, watertoys, tenders, and even the helicopter. Each credit represents 1 ton of carbon dioxide.
Overall, this step is one of many that the owner of Twizzle has taken to ensure his yacht will be “green.” She’ll reportedly have no discharge into the ocean, and she’ll be permitted to cruise environmentally sensitive regions.
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