All businesses must be environmentally conscious, and marinas are no exception. So, how do we evolve to protect the waterside environment in which we operate and our customers enjoy?
With the marine community becoming increasingly environmentally aware, Premier Marinas has set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Premier Marinas occupied facilities (building or boatyard).
Overall emissions reduction is the most direct way for any business to start working in favour of the planet and to officially benchmark this, in 2023 Premier became the first UK marina operator to be verified ISO 14064-1:2008 for the management of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions - a point of reference to formally begin measuring emissions.
Managing electricity provision and consumption is key to achieving their environmental goals. Premier Marinas has been investing in solar panels for 15 years, amounting to a total investment of nearly £850,000. Each installation has been designed to optimise the amount of energy harnessed from the sun and this huge investment not only significantly reduces the draw on the power grid, but over time makes real operational cost savings.
As of June 2024, the solar installations across all Premier sites have grown to a total of 3630 solar panels with a total generating capability greater than 1200 kWp. To date, these panels have harnessed over 4,000,000 kWh of electricity from the sun - enough to power over 1500 homes (Ofgem estimates the typical household in England, Scotland and Wales uses 2,700 kWh of electricity a year).
To highlight the effectiveness of the investment, Premier Marinas has launched information on its website to display live data from each site, showing the energy being generated. This is now live at https://www.premiermarinas.com/sustainability and displays the electricity generated in the last 24 hours, as well as the total generated in the past 12 months.
A stringent energy management policy helps reduce consumption across every aspect of the business and when the solar PV system can’t supply all of Premier’s need, supplementary electricity is supplied from 100% renewable sources.
Premier Marinas’ Environment Health and Safety Manager Peter Wortley said: “Our customers want to see that we are serious about protecting the environment, so it is critical for us to take action and be as transparent as possible in what we do - which is why the Premier Marinas website now displays live solar data from all our sites.”
Another key factor in reducing Premier’s carbon emissions has been the switch over in 2023 to using hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in place of diesel for boatyard plant and machinery – the first marina group in the UK to achieve this. It is intended that Premier’s latest acquisition at Trafalgar Wharf, Portsmouth Harbour will follow soon.
Premier Marinas prides itself on authentic environmental practice and subscribes to independent business environmental ratings to endorse that they are not ‘greenwashing’.
In addition to ISO 14064-1:2008 for the management of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Premier holds ISO 14001-1:2015 for Environmental Management alongside ISO 45001:2018 for Occupational Health and Safety. Premier also has EcoVadis recognition – the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings.
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