Event Details | |
| Host | Chatham Sailing Club |
| Location | Savannah, USA |
| Certification Level | Platinum |
| Website Link | https://www.chathamsailingclub.org |
Best Practices Achieved
1. Eliminate Single-Use Water Bottles and Provide Water Refill Stations
2. Eliminate Plastic Straws
We NEVER use straws of any kind!
3. Serve Food with Plastic-Free Dinnerware
We use real silverware, washable cups and this year we used compostable plates and bowls.
4. Skip Bags or Go Reusable
We do keep a stash of reusable bags in the clubhouse, though I don't have pictures.
5. Award Practical Items or Use a Perpetual or Upcycled Trophy
We try to one-up ourselves with functional and sustainable awards each regatta. This year we gave bamboo cutting boards for individual awards and also had our annual award for the best sportsmanship in the regatta.
6. Publicize Your Sustainability Efforts
We do this on an ongoing basis on our FB pages and our GroupMe. The first pic is from emails sent to all members and participants.
7. Involve Local Organizations
Clean Coast (clean coast.org) is one of the groups we work with to clean up beaches and coastal areas around Savannah year round. Many of our members are also members of Clean Coast.
8. Post Educational and Reusable Signage
Laminated signs. We also announce it to all those at the party.
9. Serve Local Food or Source Seafood Sustainably
Our non-racing members provide a potluck style meal for our guests. We do our best to encourage local, so one member made sure to bring lettuce, tomatoes and onions (for the burgers) bought from our local produce market! I'd have to venture to guess many of the veggies and salad items were from our local farmer's market.
10. Organize a Green Team
Our entire club is our Green Team. Our social committee did a fabulous job keeping us as green as possible for this regatta.
14. Host a Beach or Marina Cleanup
Just one of our cleanups in a local creek.
15. Prevent Toxins from Entering the Water
We now have 2 boats with ePropulsion motors, one replacing a diesel inboard and 1 outboard. And one of our sponsors works for ePropulsion to assist with installation.
16. Increase Awareness of Wildlife and Habitat Protection
We do this on our FB pages regularly. We also do something called Wisdom Wednesday where we invite speakers to educate us on a variety of subjects pertaining to the water. Next up is a retired oceanography professor to talk about our rivers and the ocean.
17. Offer Vegetarian or Vegan Alternatives
Many of our members are vegan or vegetarian so we always have food for them/from them. We also had burgers for the carnivores.
18. Promote Alternative Transportation
No pics. We had a shuttle service via one of our members to pickup sailors docking overnight at the Savannah Yacht Club. Most sailors were docking nearby.
19. Reduce Day-of Emissions
Unfortunately since this is an ocean race some of us have to drive the 45 miles to Hilton Head to meet up with our boats on regatta day. We do carpool, and we are a small number. The skippers and most crew sail up. See my pictures of the 2 ePropulsion motors-doing what we can! We really are impressing other sailors with the peace and quiet, and especially with our determination to reduce emissions.
20. Inspire Future Action
We talk to other clubs often about our sustainability efforts. As a result they, too, are turning to reusable, functional awards and even going with compostable plates. A little progress at a time. I can say I was laughed at in the beginning, but now most in the club are on board with these efforts. We lost glass recycling for the last 2 years and just recently found a company we can pay to recycle glass. It's always a work in progress.
