The Crown Estate which owns most of the UK seabed 12 miles out to sea and half the foreshore, is paying an environmental agency to educate sailors to behave in an eco-friendly manner.
 
The Royal Yachting Association and British Marine Federation’s innovative environmental awareness programme, The Green Blue, has been granted funding for a further three years.

The Green Blue has helped hundreds of clubs and marinas across the UK, the vast majority of whom are The Crown Estate’s tenants, to minimise their impact on the environment.

This has involved environmental audits, engaging members and berth holders to help them go green on board, advising on energy efficiency, setting up improved waste management systems resulting in millions of litres of waste being diverted from landfill to recycling and encouraging the installation of washdown and pump out facilities to protect water quality.

More recently The Green Blue has helped the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy and Sunsail achieve ISO 20121, a ‘sustainable event management standard.’
 
The Crown Estate’s Coastal Manager, Gary Thompson said: “Our portfolio of assets includes over 17,000 licensed moorings around the UK which are vital to the marine leisure community. We therefore felt that it is crucial to help this community reduce their impact on the marine environment by providing funding to The Green Blue.
 
“The project has been a fantastic success, winning our Marine Business Award in 2011, an award which recognises excellence in sustainability, innovation and business performance. The extension of our funding agreement recognises the positive contribution the project has made to UK’s marine leisure sector”.
 
The Crown Estate manages a highly diverse property business valued at more £8.6 billion with all profits going to the Treasury which in 2012/13 was £252.6 million. Over the past ten years The Crown Estate has paid over £2 billion to the Treasury.