We are very pleased to announce that UPSC have once again entered the ‘University Sustainability Challenge 2018-19’ and are aiming to achieve gold award!

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University Sailing Clubs across the UK have been invited by The Green Blue to enter this challenge in order to improve sustainability awareness and current practices. There are numerous activities involved which must be completed by February 2019. These activities include switching to reusable water bottles when we go sailing, presentations to educate sailors on keeping our waters clean and working with Portsmouth Sailing Club to make all our practices sustainable (from cleaning up spilt engine oil to hosing boats down after use to prevent spreading invasive non-native species around UK waters). We at UPSC are planning to achieve Bronze award by the end of October, and Silver award by the end of November! The top 3 universities to successfully complete the most activities will receive prize awards. If we were to win any prize money on offer, we would look to invest it in some of our current development projects which make up part of our ongoing club revamp 2018/19. Projects include buying a new shed to keep our kit and tools in better condition.

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The challenge is run by The Green Blue (created by the RYA and British Marine) who have worked with many marine services including Sunsail and our neighbours over at Ben Ainslie Racing. The Green Blue helps boaters and boating businesses to be more environmentally friendly and minimise their environmental impact on both inland and coastal waters.

Here at UPSC, we believe this is a great challenge to get involved in as we all want the waters we sail on to be clean and unspoiled. The smallest action such as spilling a bit of petrol or losing your water bottle overboard can have the biggest impact on our seas. We fully support the objective of developing a sustainable boating industry.

We’re encouraging all members to get involved in the challenge, so keep an eye out on this page and on our new website, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat accounts for information on how to get involved and to follow our progress!

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For more information, get in touch with our Sustainability Officer and Commodore Hebe Hemming at commodore@upsc.co.uk