Future Lab 2: The next steps on the roadmap to sustainability
Sustainability has become a core issue at Feadship in recent times as we strive to build yachts in the most eco-friendly way possible and partner with owners to ensure the same applies to the operation of their Feadship. The most recent edition of our series of Future Lab symposiums was dedicated to this important topic, with experts from across the Feadship group gathering to examine the smartest ways forward.
Following on from the successful symposium held last year on the subject of innovation, the second Feadship Future Lab attracted a broad audience, including facility managers, production specialists, engineers, project managers and refit staff. Everything was on the table, from ways to avoid waste at the yards to the materials used on a Feadship.
Exploring ideas
“New ideas were generated and explored that the different companies could all work on within a given theme or project,” explains Feadship’s knowledge & innovation manager Marc Levadou, who organised the symposium. “There were also discussions with the Feadship directors on how best to define our sustainability ambitions via a strategic Feadship-wide programme.”
Seven breakout sessions were held covering specific topics:
- Strategic aspects of sustainability related to the company, market and clients
- Using the many materials involved in a Feadship build more efficiently
- Optimising the Feadship facilities to lessen our construction footprint
- Onboard energy: how to lower hotel load consumption
- Ways to reduce a Feadship’s emissions to zero
- Minimising the energy required to power a Feadship
- Making refits and refitted Feadships more efficient.
“The moderator of each of these mini Future Labs gave a short pitch to the rest of the group on the solutions raised,” Levadou says. “Special visualisations made during the sessions were used to bring each subject to life. Our keynote speaker – author and entrepreneur Leen Zevenbergen –interviewed Feadship director Henk de Vries after each presentation to gain some direct feedback. We now have lots of material for a clear plan and have been inspired to increase the green efficiency of material use at Feadship without having to necessarily reinvent the wheel.”
Smart initiatives
Feadship director Jan-Bart Verkuyl also attended the symposium and was impressed with the way it was organised. “This is a fine example of how the team at Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects is taking the initiative to help ensure that Feadship is future-ready. They are investing a great deal of time and effort into R&D, showcasing how seriously Feadship takes the whole issue of sustainability. Senior design specialist Bram Jongepier has been doing some excellent work on creating an industry-wide measurement tool called YETI (Yacht Environment Transparency Index), which gauges how green yachts really are.”
