Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards, the final phase kicks off

The International Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards have entered their final phase. This is the coveted competition among boating startups, dedicated to showcasing the best innovations in environmental sustainability and technological innovation, organized in the context of the Monaco Smart & Sustainable Marina Rendezvous promoted by M3 (Monaco Marina Management). From the more than 600 startups that applied, 50 finalists were selected to decide the overall winners, who will be announced on Monday, September 25.

The International Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards enables financiers, policymakers and innovators to get together and be put in contact with the whole marina ecosystem against a backdrop of sustainable tourism. The event is supported by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the government’s Extended Monaco digital transition programme for the Principality, as well as UBS, MB92 Group, Bombardier, GV Investments, Xerjoff et Royal Caviar House.

«With the International Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards, we want to encourage initiatives to build more eco-responsible yachting – says Bernard d’Alessandri, President Cluster Yachting Monaco and Yacht Club de Monaco General Secretary – Infrastructures such as marinas must reflect yachting today, a more restrained yachting in line with the environmental challenges we face today”.

“Over 250 people representing the ecosystem will be present at the International Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards – says José Marco Casellini, CEO of M3 – It’s so important to put everyone in contact with those behind these innovations. Sustainability is at the heart of investment decisions today”.

Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards: the final stage

To participate in the International Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards, winners will have gone through a selection process of one-on-one interviews then a Consensus Meeting with the 60+ experts that comprise the international Jury. The 50 startups selected as finalists have presented projects concerning the management of water, energy, waste and recovery, mobility, security, construction, port equipment and facilities to cope with climate change, while protecting and regenerating biodiversity.

“Regarding startups and scaleups, 245 interviews were held by members of the Jury, with 75% achieving the maximum score of 10 on the criteria of interest – explains Géraldine A. Gustin, CEO of Blumorpho – The level of innovations put forward passed a milestone this year. One of the challenges of this exercise for Jury members is to have to make choices between innovation in the energy field, carbon sequestration, water management and also solutions specific to the day-to-day running of marinas. The discussions this weekend are set to be very interesting”.

The winners of the International Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards will be announced for three categories: Startups & Scaleups, Marinas, and Architects. This year there is also an ideas competition to inspire architects and students to create waterfront projects that are not only attractive and functional but also sustainable. “This is the first time we’ve done this type of competition and it looks very promising for the future. We have had some very surprising proposals showing just how the yachting world and its environment is evolving. Yachting and marinas have so much to offer in our lives today”, says Jury president, the renowned architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte.

Side Initiatives

The announcement of the winners of the International Smart & Sustainable Marina Awards will be preceded by a number of side events related to environmentally sustainable nautical tourism. Among them, the panel discussion ‘Impact of the New Generation of Yachts on Marina Infrastructures’ with the participation of Martinho Fortunato, President of ICOMIA (International Council of Marine Industry Associations), Alex Bamberg, CEO of Aqua superPower and Marcello Maggi, President of Wider Yachts. They will look at the needs of infrastructures in the long-term to concrete cases in terms of electrification and refuelling with the new alternative fuels and accommodation of larger boats. Discussions will be on the Western Mediterranean but also the Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean and North Sea.