This year’s Crick Boat show proved to be the ideal place for The Yacht Harbour Association (TYHA) to present Aqueduct Marina with the first Clean Marina award for an inland marina. Many of the marina’s staff attended the event at which MD Robert Parton and Jon White, TYHA’s General Manager, spoke after the presentation to staff members of a certificate of compliance and Clean Marina flag.

During the presentation, Jon White praised the team at Aqueduct for the amount of work they put in to gain the award, saying, “They have put a tremendous amount of time, effort and hard work, alongside some financial investment into gaining this award. When we first visited, we provided a report with an action plan, and they went away, committed to the plan and have delivered outstanding results.”

Jon White went on to say that gaining a Clean Marina Award is not a box-ticking exercise. “After the initial assessment, the marina is given an action plan, which may require some investment on their part, communications to berth holders or the introduction of new ways of working. They then have to provide evidence that they have committed to and fulfilled the plan and achieve an 80% score in each of the different components that make up the award.”

Robert Parton, Managing Director, Aqueduct Marina, said, “We are naturally delighted to achieve the new Clean Marina standard here at Aqueduct Marina. The inspection was rigorous, so we had to amend a few activities and embed some company policies, making the exercise a useful project. We are, without a doubt, a better and more environmentally aware marina as a result. Aqueduct Marina has, for some time, had an ongoing focus on reducing its environmental impact. We are delighted to win the accreditation and to be the first inland marina. Having already installed electric car charging, introduced greener products in the Chandlery and now offering HVO diesel, we aim to reduce our carbon footprint even more. And we’re pleased to say our customers are fully engaged and supporting the effort.”

The Clean Marina award was launched in 2021 to help marinas get the basics right such as blackwater capture and treatment, correctly managing segregated and hazardous waste, spill prevention and treatment, wash-down capture and filtration, drain interception, using sustainable products and preventing plastic pollution, and of course, influencing tenants, contractors and boaters to be more sustainable too. Initially launched in Australasia, the award has been gained by five coastal marinas, with a number of others currently looking to achieve the award.