The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has approved ISO/TS 23099, building on the results of the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI) Joint Industry Project led by the Water Revolution Foundation. The Technical Specification introduces a science-based method for evaluating and comparing the environmental performance of large yachts.
ISO/TS 23099 marks the first project completed by ISO TC8 SC12 Working Group 6 (WG6) on Large Yachts Sustainability & Environment. It has been approved by national standardization bodies across Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Turkey, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
“ISO is the way to unite cross-industry experts and proactively work together on our own standards where international legislative guidance is absent or proves impractical to implement,” said WG6 convenor Robert van Tol. “There is now a yacht-specific method and official reference to be applied for assessing the fleet.”
The framework builds on YETI, which brought together shipyards, designers, suppliers, and technical experts to create a consistent methodology for assessing the environmental impact of motor and sailing yachts over 30 metres. The result is a single, comparable score based primarily on energy consumption and emissions across the full yacht life cycle.
“The method benchmarks yachts through a fixed median values operational profile that was statistically found of 10% cruising, 34% at anchor, and 56% in port, which is fundamentally different from that of commercial shipping,” said Hanna Dąbrowska, technical director at Water Revolution Foundation. “The result is indicated through a score against a reference line of central tendency of scores in different gross tonnage (volume) categories.”
By establishing a unified framework, ISO/TS 23099 enables objective comparisons, supports informed decisions for new builds and refits, and encourages continuous improvement. Ultimately, it creates a shared language for environmental performance.
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