Environmental sustainability has been part of Devonport Yacht Club’s ethos for decades. Now it’s measured – and official. Devonport Yacht Club (DYC) is the first yacht club in the country to achieve maximum three-star status under Yachting New Zealand’s “Clean Club” initiative.
The club is justifiably proud of its environmental heritage. How could it be otherwise with Sir Peter Blake a prominent member (and Patron) of the club before his death while researching the effects of climate change on the marine environment? In 2021 new interest was engendered by one of the club’s “Sea Talks” (by Auckland University marine biologist Andrew Jeffs). And at around the same time Yachting New Zealand (YNZ) was developing a programme to encourage yacht clubs across the country to be more aware of their environmental footprint.
Galvanised by Andrew Jeffs’ talk, three DYC members – Paula Shelton, Callum Ross and Geoff Evans – decided to establish a sustainability page on the club’s website as a precursor to doing more. They “reached out to Yachting New Zealand to find out if they had resources to help us,” says Paula, “and were delighted to be asked to contribute to [YNZ’s] emerging sustainability strategy”. (Incidentally, this strategy was driven by other North Shore locals: Raynor Haagh, YNZ’s National Sport Development Director, and Delayne Salthouse from Wakatere Boating Club.
Ironically, Devonport’s fast-track to three-star status was aided by the 2021 Covid lockdowns; with sailing limited, the trio had the necessary time to devote to developing policies and strategies. With full support from the club management committee, including the flag officers, Paula, Ross and Geoff undertook research, developed policies and actions, and engaged interest within the club.
They were also assisted by having the clear YNZ Clean Club structure to work to once this was completed. This lays out five areas for action: administration and leadership, waste management, resource conservation, community outreach, and education. Better still, within each of these focus areas are a number of clear actions that can be taken by clubs, and a hierarchy that awards stars for the numbers of actions taken. (Full details are on YNZ’s website.) DYC’s report to YNZ, written by Paula, documents its achievement of the requisite 30 criteria needed to achieve three-star status, and details exactly what DYC has done and how it has gone about this.
The first step was the dedicated sustainability page, and publicity and progress updates in the club’s weekly and monthly newsletters. “We also continued hosting invited speakers to talk at monthly Sea Talks on environmental topics,” adds Paula, to engage DYC sailing members as well as social members and members of the wider Devonport community.
To cover all the topics in the Clean Club “checklist” Paula, Geoff and Callum talked to club members who had different jobs around the club – the haulage master, bar manager, site manager, and the Commodore, to name a few. And “we socialised what we were doing in conversations at the club. We got encouragement everywhere we looked.”
Paula says her skill is in communicating the work everyone is doing. She gives much of the credit for the work to Geoff, a past commodore with “an absolute passion for restoring the marine environment”, and Callum, who “has been essential to propelling sustainability into clear focus at the club. Callum’s actively involved in helping re-plant some of the Gulf islands and has put us in touch with all sorts of groups carrying out restoration projects around the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park”. (Many of these, along with volunteering opportunities, are detailed on DYC’s sustainability web page.)
Paula believed that having a good foundation would ensure future compliance with Clean Club objectives. This meant creating a formal environmental policy, establishing a new role on the management committee – sustainability rep [Paula] – as well as getting buy-in from members. It will also help ensure the club’s environmental ethos will be sustained – and that people will routinely comply with positive environmental actions.
Having laid the groundwork, the three started working through the criteria in January this year, and completed the report in June. It’s important to realise, Paula notes, that this six-month period “was a sprint following a 20-year marathon that’s by no means over yet”.
“Many of the criteria were straightforward for us to meet at the time of compiling our submission, but only because of previous work by members and investment by the club. For example, the club invested in a sump system that prevents scrapings from boat hulls on the hardstand from going into the sea, and developed safety rules for haulees that specify a duty of care for the environment while carrying out boat maintenance.
“And our club manager is especially environmentally conscious and could confirm that, for example, packaging for deliveries is always kept to a minimum and disposed of correctly through appropriate recycling. She even donates surplus food to Kai Rescue when she can.”
“Going for independent accreditation meant that we needed to check that policies were in place and things we anecdotally thought were happening were actually being actioned. And they were! Doing the audit also meant that some things that had been overlooked were brought into sharp focus. For example, drains from our hardstand are not marked ‘Drains to Sea’.”
Achieving three-star status is just the beginning for DYC. “It’s very much a living document,” Paula says. It’s not just a matter of auditing the club’s behaviour, but about being solution-focused. “It’s about finding positive things to do”. One YNZ action, for example, asks that clubs “encourage responsible dog ownership”. You can tick the box and say you do that, Paula points out, but what can you do positively? To this end, she has started making a chart of dog exercise areas around the Hauraki Gulf. Having only been in Auckland for the past three years, she knows she’s not an expert in this area – and would love people to send her any information they have to contribute to this.
Other future actions could include regular beach clean ups, and perhaps a mussel restoration project that involves establishing mussel lines off Devonport and Torpedo Bay wharves, though that still requires discussion with iwi and other groups.
Paula’s also sure they’ll suggest to YNZ things that are not in its list of actions yet. She cites the need for sustainable club branded clothing – where and how it is made, and what it is made of – as just one example.
But for now, she and other club members are delighted at progress they’ve made and with DYC’s newly acquired Clean Club status as “testament not just to what we do now, but to all the work members have done over the years”.
