The superyacht industry has always set high standards — in construction, in design, in the quality of service. What is changing is the definition of what those standards must cover. Environmental responsibility, once addressed through basic MARPOL compliance, is now expected to be embedded in the professional culture of every well-run vessel. The question facing owners, managers, and crew training institutions alike is how quickly that expectation becomes the norm — and who is prepared when it does.
FROM COMPLIANCE TO COMPETENCE
For most of the industry’s modern history, environmental conduct onboard meant meeting minimum regulatory requirements: proper waste disposal, fuel management within permitted thresholds, adherence to protected area rules. These are necessary conditions. They are no longer sufficient ones.
The expansion of marine protected areas across the Mediterranean and Caribbean, growing scrutiny from port state authorities, and a client base that is more environmentally aware than at any previous point in the industry’s history have collectively raised the bar. Crew are now expected to understand the ecological context of the places they visit — not simply to avoid obvious infractions, but to make active decisions that reflect genuine environmental awareness.
“Environmental responsibility is not a separate subject from seamanship. How you anchor, how you manage fuel, how you handle waste in a sensitive anchorage — these are professional decisions. We train crew to treat them as such.”
— Claire Ferandier Sicard – ETYC Instructor, La Belle Classe Academy
La Belle Classe Academy, based at the Yacht Club de Monaco, has addressed this directly through its ETYC — Environmental Training for Yacht Crew programme. Founded in 2015, the Academy is dedicated to training yachting professionals in Monaco. Designed for all crew levels, the ETYC is a one-day certification built around a practical environmental management system. It equips crew with the knowledge and tools to reduce the ecological impact of yacht operations without compromising service standards — addressing fuel and waste management, anchoring in sensitive zones, and the day-to-day decisions that collectively determine how a vessel affects the marine environment it moves through. The programme integrates an Environmental Management System aligned with ISO 14001, giving crews practical tools to collect data, assess their impact, and build realistic short- and long-term action plans tailored to daily onboard operations.
“High-level yachting is no longer limited to technical mastery or excellence in service. It now requires an informed understanding of the environments in which yachts operate. At La Belle Classe Academy, we consider environmental literacy to be an essential professional skill, on the same level as safety or leadership on board.”
— Lynda Lusignani, Head of La Belle Classe Academy, Yacht Club de Monaco
THE OPERATIONAL REALITY
What distinguishes the ETYC from a standard awareness course is its focus on implementation. The programme is structured around two modules: one for service managers, covering environmental performance management at a vessel-wide level; and one for all other crew, covering practical more sustainable practices onboard. Both are available on-site or online, in English and French.
“At ETYC, we approach sustainability as an operational discipline. It’s not about creating guilt or adding complexity to daily operations, it’s about giving crews a structured way to understand and manage their impact, without compromising the level of service expected on board.”
— Claire Ferandier Sicard – ETYC Instructor, La Belle Classe Academy
The underlying principle is that environmental responsibility, to be effective, must be distributed across the entire crew — not delegated to a single officer or addressed only when a regulation demands it. A chef who understands the waste implications of provisioning decisions, a deckhand who knows why a particular anchorage protocol matters, a chief stew who can communicate environmental practices to guests: these are the practical outcomes the programme is designed to produce.
Beyond individual training, the wider question is how these standards are embedded into the operating culture of a yacht.
“Effective yacht management is not only about keeping a vessel compliant. It is about creating a professional operating culture in which the captain and crew understand why standards exist and apply them consistently, even when no one is watching. That is where environmental responsibility becomes part of proper seamanship, rather than a box-ticking exercise.”
— Ian Harris, CEO, Phoenix Yachts
WHAT OWNERS AND YACHT MANAGERS ARE ASKING FOR
The shift in client expectations is increasingly visible. Owners and charter guests at the upper end of the market are increasingly aware of environmental issues and, more importantly, they notice how their vessel is operated. A poorly managed anchorage, careless waste handling, or a crew that lacks situational awareness in a protected marine area are no longer just operational failures. They are reputational ones.
“ When we take a yacht into management, its environmental conduct reflects directly on the owner, the captain and the management company. Our role is to ensure that operational decisions — from passage planning and fuel use to anchoring, waste handling and crew conduct in sensitive areas — are governed by clear standards, sound judgement and respect for the destinations in which the yacht operates.”
— Ian Harris, CEO, Phoenix Yachts
For yacht management companies, this creates a practical imperative. Vessels managed to a genuinely high environmental standard — with trained crew, clear protocols, and consistent conduct across all departments — represent a meaningful point of differentiation. For increasingly informed charter brokers and clients, environmental credentials are becoming part of the wider assessment of how a yacht is managed and operated.
THE REGULATORY DIRECTION OF TRAVEL
The commercial case for investing in environmental training is reinforced by a clear regulatory trajectory. IMO targets on emissions reduction, the expansion of emission control areas, and increasing port state scrutiny are raising the compliance baseline across the global fleet. Standards that were considered progressive only a few years ago are increasingly becoming reference points in crew employment and vessel management discussions.
“The management companies that will be best placed for the next phase of yachting are those that treat environmental standards as part of everyday professional discipline, not as a reaction to regulation or client pressure. If these practices are embedded early — through training, procedures and onboard culture — regulatory change becomes easier to absorb, and the vessel is better protected commercially, operationally and reputationally.”
— Ian Harris, CEO, Phoenix Yachts
A PROFESSION RAISING ITS OWN BAR
The most significant aspect of this shift is not regulatory. It is professional. The superyacht industry has always been defined by the quality of the people who work in it. A growing number of those people are choosing to hold themselves to a higher environmental standard because they understand the places they work in — the sensitivity of a protected bay, the cumulative effect of thousands of vessel movements through the same waters every season.
Training programmes like the ETYC are a formal expression of something that is already changing from within the profession. The crew who complete them are not simply more compliant. They are more competent — in the fullest sense of the word.