Sustainability Focus at The Volvo Ocean Race

Viva speaks with their Sustainable Program Leader, Anne-Cécile Turner from her base in Switzerland about what drives this focus, and the practices they have in place to support it.

Why is it important for the Volvo Ocean Race to have this focus on sustainability?

The ocean is our playground and the playground is threatened. It’s threatened by several dangers but one of the most recent about which we know very little is ocean plastic pollution. This is simply because it’s a new, often totally invisible danger.

Not enough research is going into ocean understanding and knowledge and the Volvo Ocean Race offers a global platform and audience to talk about the issues that are affecting the sailors playground and racetrack – our blue planet.

It is important to remember how the seas comprise more than 70% of the planet and are responsible for 50% of the oxygen produced for humankind. The important role of the ocean gives us even more responsibility to actually take action.

What’s happening out there? Are things worsening each series of the race?

What we’re seeing is linked to the explosion of plastic production over the past fifty years. Poorly managed waste management facilities and the habits of people who simply don’t know any different means that plastic ends up in rivers from where it flows into the sea. How the issue of toxicity around plastics relates to human health is also something that we need to better understand.

The amount of plastic in our seas has increased and it’s definitely reaching a crisis point. If you see the projected levels of plastic being produced over the next few years it’s not going to get better.

Scientists have estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish so as a global event, visiting a range of iconic cities, the Volvo Ocean Race has a powerful and unique platform to explore the issues and solutions that can have a positive impact upon the plastic that’s polluting our oceans.

We need to take action now to stop this truly frightening scenario from becoming a reality.

What action is the Volvo Ocean Race taking?

We wanted to use the boats that are sailing in the most remote parts of the ocean to contribute to ocean knowledge. Scientists were very interested in that idea. So we’ve created a consortium of organisations, including Volvo cars, who are working with us providing valuable funding and in-kind help.

We’ve implemented a drifter program that all the boats are participating in. The drifter device is like a buoy, launched in a location given where there is a lack of data. It measures temperature, surface pressure and ocean currents and transmits the data via satellite and this is used to capture a range of data that will help scientists understand how our Oceans function.

We've also equipped one boat with scientific instruments and these boats are basically filtering water and sending data. They can measure CO₂ and also the concentration of microplastics in the oceans. The sailors are becoming scientists to help advance our knowledge of the impacts we're having on our oceans.

In a one design boat where the sailors are totally dedicated to the race and the sailing, it’s a task that someone has to do on board. So we have the boat captain, Liz Wardley, doing it on Turn The Tide On Plastic, and during the next stopover in Auckland, a second boat, AkzoNobel, will be fitted with data collection equipment enabling us to gain even more knowledge and understanding of microplastic levels in our oceans. So far the data has found levels of microplastic close to Antarctica which illustrates how pervasive they have become.

Interactive and immersive sustainability activations in the Race Villages are designed to educate and inspire some of the three million visitors over course of the race to take action in their own lives to reduce their use of plastics.

Our Ocean Summits are bringing together the worlds of sport, industry, government, science and ocean advocates, to discuss innovative solutions to the global crisis of ocean plastics. By convening key stakeholders we can inspire individuals and communities to help turn the tide on plastic.

The Volvo Ocean Race Sustainability Education Programme, aimed at students aged 6-12 years, gives them the chance to discover the excitement of sailing and learn about how plastic pollution is damaging our seas and how they can help protect our blue planet by becoming Champions for the Sea.

Tell us about Turn the Tide on Plastic.

It’s an initiative that has been pushed by the race organisation, thanks to our partnership with the UN. As Nelson Mandela says ‘our thoughts have the power to change the world’.  We want to expand the boundaries outside of the performance arena and add purpose into it.

Having a boat in the campaign is so powerful because suddenly the media reference the name of the boat. The name was carefully chosen as a direct call to action and we wanted to use it as a way to magnify the message that we need to take action on single-use plastics.

And not only is there this environmental issue but there’s also the choice of a woman skipper, in Dee Caffari, and a team that is male and female, with many aged under 30. So we have inclusion and diversity values in that team.

In NZ we have a reputation for being clean and green - what can we do to protect our oceans?

There is a wide range of organisations in New Zealand who are already campaigning to ban the use of plastic bags and single-use plastics. New Zealanders can make a start by supporting these initiatives and declaring that they will no longer use single-use plastics.

They can also make a commitment to the future health of our oceans by signing the UN-led #CleanSeas pledge which the Volvo Ocean Race is supporting.