A Q&A with Robin Clegg about the Volvo Ocean Race's newest Sustainability Program partner
by David Schmidt 19 Feb 2018 08:00 PST
February 19, 2018
Plastic ocean rubbish - Pacific Ocean Gyre © SW
Spend enough time sailing offshore and there’s simply no ignoring an ugly byproduct of our society, namely plastic detritus floating on or in the ocean, doomed to a scenario of larger pieces slowly breaking down into ever smaller bits that are almost imposible to clean up, and which pose threats to our food chain. While us sailors might be prone to the occasional bit of colorful language when a plastic bag or other plastic refuse wraps around a keel or rudder, the situation is a thousand-fold worse for the marine life that has to contend with a reality that simply didn’t exist 100 years ago.
While our society has grown numb to imagery of the various garbage gyres, most of us were happily content to live under the false reality that this garbage simply spends its time circling the brine in a relatively localized fashion, never straying to the true wilderness areas that we as a society hold dear on one hand while looking to exploit and extricate from on the other.
This might have been a nice fantasy, but it officially ended in January when the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) announced that new data (www.volvooceanrace.com/en/news/10872_Microplastic-particles-found-in-Antarctic-waters.html), which was collected during Leg 2 (Lisbon to Cape Town) and Leg 3 (Cape Town to Melbourne) of the 2017/2018 VOR, found microplastic particles in the Southern Ocean, near the race’s Antarctic Ice Exclusion Zone.
To be fair, samples from the Southern Atlantic Ocean contained between 89 (collected west of Cape Town, during Leg 3) and 152 (collected east of Cape Town on Leg 4) microplastic particles per cubic meter, whilst the Southern Ocean samples revealed four microplastic particles per cubic meter, but the point is that the problem is spreading from the garbage gyres and heavily trampled waters to the last vestiges of true wilderness left on the planet. (For an additional data point, a sample that was collected in Australian waters close to Melbourne contained 115 microplastic particles per cubic meter of brine.)
Given that two of the seven teams competing in this year’s VOR carry the names of environmental-related organizations (Vestas/11th Hour Racing and Clean Oceans-Turn the Tide on Plastic), there’s no question that the VOR, its sailors, and its sponsors are all committed to cleaning up the oceans. Instead, the question becomes one of “how”.
Fortunately, the VOR has built a strong fan base and following, and they are now using this platform to try and positively influence different thought leaders, companies, countries and individuals, both with their online messaging and with their global stopovers, some of which serve as Ocean Summits involving movers and shakers in different global regions.
Most recently, the VOR announced that Stena Recycling has signed on as the race’s newest Sustainability Program partner, so I caught up with Robin Clegg, who handles the VOR’s Sustainability Communications, via email, to learn more about this exciting partnership and how it can help the VOR nudge the needle in terms of reducing humanity’s dependence on plastics and, vis-à-vis, their eventual journey into the worlds oceans.
Can you tell us a bit about the VOR’s Ocean Summits and Stena Recycling’s new position as a Sustainability Program partner? What are the Ocean Summits' goals and how will Stena help you to advance these?
With the support of key partners and Volvo Cars, the Ocean Summit has scheduled a set of seven events to be held at key host cities.
The summits are designed as a forum to convene a range of high-level influencers from government, business, sports and the [non-government organization] sector to share a platform with scientists, innovators and thought leaders to provide impactful and scalable solutions, from global to local, to address the problem of plastic pollution in our seas.
By convening key stakeholders we aim to inspire people to help turn the tide in plastic.
Stena Recycling will activate the partnership by providing an expert speaker on sustainability at Volvo Ocean Race Ocean Summits.
Who gets to attend these Ocean Summits?
As above, key influencers. We disseminate the information through media and our digital channels for people to understand the rationale behind and solutions discussed at the Ocean Summits.
What about the Sustainability Program itself—what is this about and what are its goals?
In collaboration with Race Partners, 11th Hour Racing, the Mirpuri Foundation, and our other main partners, Volvo, AkzoNobel, Bluewater, Stena Recycling and Ocean Family Foundation, the Volvo Ocean Race has developed a Sustainability Program (www.volvooceanrace.com/en/sustainability.html) to educate, innovate and leave a lasting legacy to address the global crisis of plastics and Ocean Health.
By maximizing our impact at host cities, minimizing the footprint of our Race Villages and providing inspiration, we aim to leave a positive legacy for the future health of our oceans.
Based on the reports that you and the other VOR organizers are getting from the 2017/2018 fleet, how much worse has the situation with plastic in the oceans become since the 2014/2015 or the 2011/2012 editions?
We don’t have microplastic data to compare from previous races. That is why this groundbreaking data is a benchmark for future scientific studies.
Is Stena Recycling helping the VOR to “reduce, reuse and recycle” at its global stopovers? If so, can you tell us a bit about these initiatives?
Stena Recycling, market leader in industrial recycling in northern Europe, are promoting sustainable recycling practices during Race stopovers and providing expert speakers on sustainability at Volvo Ocean Race Ocean Summits.
Are there any adaptable lessons from the VOR’s Ocean Summits or the VOR’s Sustainability Program that other distance races could use to help reduce their environmental footprint and put less plastic into our oceans?
We hope to provide a template for sustainability engagement for a range of sporting events to reduce their impact.
What about individual sailors or teams? Are there adaptable lessons that can help sailors—on a granular level—to reduce their environmental impact?
Absolutely. The first thing they can do is find out more about the impacts of plastics on the health of our oceans and sign the UN #CleanSeas (www.cleanseas.org/take-action) pledge
Anything else that you’d like to add, for the record?
A range of initiatives has been introduced during stopovers to minimize the footprint of the Race Villages. These include significantly reducing single-use plastics, with a focus on plastic water bottles. The introduction of water refill stations has effectively avoided the use of 85,000 single-use plastic bottles.
The Science Program is working with the seven race boats to gather critical information on ocean health. We currently have very little scientific data from some of the oceans the boats pass through. This new information will contribute to scientists having a better understanding of weather patterns and the impacts of climate change.
The Turn the Tide on Plastic boat is also testing salinity, dissolved CO2 and algae alongside groundbreaking tests for microplastics levels in the Oceans.
During the Alicante Ocean Summit, Spain announced its intention to join the UN Clean Seas Campaign whilst the mayor of Alicante declared a plastic education campaign in all schools in the city.
At the Cape Town Ocean Summit, the V&A Waterfront shopping centre, which welcomes 24 million visitors each year, pledged to eliminate single-use plastic bags and bottles. WorldSport, a major Cape Town events management company, committed to sustainable event practices with the Volvo Ocean Race event being a benchmark from which to move forward.
The Volvo Ocean Race Sustainability Education Program (www.volvooceanrace.com/en/sustainability/education.html), 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.
The program, which is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch and Chinese and fits with curriculums globally, has so far been experienced by over 2,300 schoolchildren during the Alicante, Lisbon and Cape Town stopovers.