About

We exist for one reason, to ensure the yachting industry leaves the oceans better than it found them

Why the ocean needs yachting to lead

The ocean is under pressure and yachting is part of that story. The industry contributes meaningfully to CO₂ emissions, generates significant waste, and operates in the very ecosystems it depends on. That’s the honest starting point.

But yachting also drives €100 billion in economic activity, supports 200,000 jobs worldwide, and sits at the intersection of extraordinary wealth, technical ambition, and genuine love for the sea. That combination, if directed well is a powerful force for change.

Water Revolution Foundation was created to direct it. To give the industry the tools, the frameworks, and the collective structure to reduce its impact, restore what it has taken, and prove that responsible yachting and a thriving industry are not in conflict, they are the same goal.

2026YETI inspires an ISO standard

YETI directly informed the development of ISO/TS 23099, the first international technical specification for yacht environmental assessment, formally approved by ISO.

2025Roadmap 2050 adopted

Sixty industry CEOs formally committed to the Roadmap, a collective pledge to reach net-zero across every stage of a yacht’s life.

2025Ocean Assist Programme launched

The industry’s first blue finance mechanism, launched at the UN Ocean Conference and introduced to the yachting world at Monaco Yacht Show.

2024YETI launched

The Yacht Environmental Transparency Index introduced a consistent, industry-wide method for assessing and comparing yachts on their environmental performance.

2021The Roadmap 2050 initiated

At the first Business Leaders Event, the industry united around a shared destination for the first time, net-zero by 2050, with a structured plan to get there.

2019First international partnership

Anchor partners from across the world joined the Foundation, marking the shift from a founding idea to a genuinely global effort.

2018Founded by industry leaders at METSTRADE

A small group of industry leaders established Water Revolution Foundation with a single conviction that the yachting industry had both the responsibility and the means to protect the oceans it depends on.

Our mission

To neutralise the superyacht industry’s environmental footprint through collaboration and measurable action and to protect the oceans that make it all possible.

Our opportunity

The superyacht industry has advantages that most sectors don’t. Clients with the resources to invest in pioneering solutions. Designers and engineers who thrive on pushing boundaries. Custom builds that can serve as proving grounds for technology that scales across the wider maritime world.

Our approach

We provide the industry with data, tools, and clear benchmarks aligned with UN, UNESCO, and ISO frameworks. We serve as the central platform connecting stakeholders, sharing what works, and tracking progress against targets that are public, measurable, and unambiguous.

Where it began and where we are going

Water Revolution Foundation was founded on stage at The Superyacht Forum in Amsterdam in November 2018, not as the conclusion of a long institutional process, but as the result of a small group of industry leaders who had run out of reasons to wait. They shared a single conviction: that an industry so dependent on the health of the ocean had both the responsibility and the means to protect it, and that no single company could do it alone.

From that founding moment, the Foundation has grown into a global platform, uniting builders, designers, operators, refit yards, scientists, and policymakers around programmes, tools, and targets that are public, measurable, and built to last.

I am convinced that we need to pool and expand our knowledge and activities even more than before, as it is in our common interest to actively reduce environmental impact. In my opinion, Water Revolution Foundation forms the ideal platform to jointly focus on this goal and to encourage a new culture of environmental awareness within our industry.

Peter Lürssen, Lürssen, Board Member