METSTRADE expands its outreach on leisure marine sustainability

With a powerful combination of year-round engagement and interactive seminars, METSTRADE, the leading platform for product and concept innovation in the global leisure marine industry, is proactively continuing its involvement in matters related to environmental sustainability across all sectors of the boating market. As of this month, matters related to Environmental Sustainability across all sectors of the boating market will be addressed regularly on the METSTRADE Online Community, and the industry is encouraged to join the discussion.

METSTRADE.com, a fully accessible 24/7/365 platform and meeting point for the industry serving the global leisure marine community, is the perfect opportunity to regularly enable ‘cross industry’ engagement on a host of sustainability and environmental issues. This is a logical continuation of the themes established with successful environmental / sustainability conferences held alongside the METSTRADE Show over the last two years.

Based on input from the community on some of these key topics, there will be an opportunity for them to be discussed in open forum during the METSTRADE Show in November. These mini-seminars will be moderated by expert speakers from the industry, and will be held at the Innovation Stage, which has become a popular and permanent feature of the show in recent years. Based on the reactions and level of engagement from the community on some of these key topics, it will lead to an opportunity for them to be discussed in open forum during the METSTRADE Show.

Irene Dros, Manager Maritime METSTRADE at RAI Amsterdam said, “We were very pleased to successfully put environmental and sustainability issues firmly on the agenda in a conference setting, and to see the involvement of senior figures from the boating industry, together with representatives from various government and trade associations. Following that it was logical to broaden the outreach, thus giving the whole marine industry, and any one of our many thousands of visitors, a chance to get personally engaged in the subject matter throughout the year and during the show itself.”

Positive outcomes from past conferences
METSTRADE has already set the tone and actively opened up the debates on these issues, by hosting The Future of Yacht Recycling conference in 2015, and the more general topic of Sustainability in the Marine Industry in 2016. Following the 2015 event, Peter Franklin, one of the organisers said, “After a very high level of practical engagement from the floor, I think it’s fair to say that everyone left with a feeling that the boating industry can find ways in the future to address the challenges presented by End-of-Life, or End-of-Use boats.” The 2016 conference explored advances in life cycle assessment, and the shift towards the circular economy for the leisure marine industry, in addition to revisiting the challenges presented by End-of-Life boats.

A launch-pad for further exploration and engagement
As environmental and sustainable themes have been well established at METSTRADE, Peter Franklin will continue to collaborate with the team at the RAI and help develop these themes by publishing regular articles in the METSTRADE Online Community.The first Sustainability article was published this week.
Peter commented, “Obviously every sector of our industry and its supply chain will be affected by future environmental demands and legislation, together with changes in consumer habits and expectations. This will present challenges and opportunities in equal measure, and I’m looking forward to engaging with enthusiastic METSTRADE Online Community Members on a broad range of topics.”