Whether sailing your 20ft sailing dinghy or managing the crew of a 75 metre superyacht, choosing sustainable yacht wear and crew uniform is a relatively inexpensive and quick way to improve your environmental footprint out on the water.
It’s important that the yacht crew are looking smart and have the right gear to protect you from the elements in what can be a harsh environment, whether that’s scorching sun or freezing wind and rain. However, like much of what we use these days, as great as yacht gear can be at protecting us from the elements, it’s not always great for the environment. We’ve looked into the key necessary crew kit needed on board and discuss below how you can make some pretty simple steps in choosing more sustainable yacht wear in your yacht clothing or crew uniform choices helping you improve your boats impact on the ocean.
1. Sustainable Yacht Wear – Clothing
If you are a chief stew on board or in some way in charge of what clothing the crew wears then choose an ethical and environmentally friendly option. The clothing industry is responsible for a growing amount of pollution through pesticide use in the growing of cotton, emissions in transport and contributing to waste in landfills.
The clothing industry’s effect on water alone is massive. It’s estimated that the manufacture of a single cotton t-shirt uses 2,700 litres of fresh water, enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years. Furthermore the use of cotton production also requires pesticides and insecticides, which pollute the soil. The runoff from fertilized cotton fields carry the excess chemicals to water bodies, causing eutrophication and algal blooms.
The dyeing process for fabrics also uses toxic chemicals, responsible for 17 to 20 percent of global industrial water pollution. In fact Seventy-two toxic chemicals have been found in the water used in textile dyeing.
There are now a number of companies specialising in ethical and sustainable yacht wear and crew uniforms. It’s literally in the name of Ethical Yacht Wear who specialise in sustainable crew uniforms. In the first instance, if looking for crew wear, give these companies a try, they should know where to source quality and sustainable items for the crew.