Major Awards win for Sustainable Sailing Ltd

The technology can recycle 90% of all the different sail cloths on the market, in a closed loop. This innovative solution for a 2000 tonne per year waste stream, mostly from the boating and leisure marine industry has been sorely needed since the invention of Dacron sail cloth in the 1960s.

The IET is a multidisciplinary professional engineering institution, who have presented awards in a wide range of categories since its inception seventeen years ago. They have a major focus on technologies which are building a more sustainable future. The President of the IET focused his awards speech on the potential of biological and chemical engineering solutions for real world challenges. This focus aligns perfectly with Sustainable sailing’s innovation in recycling sails.

Sails are designed to be hard wearing and resistant to all the abuse of high-performance racing, but this has come at the cost of their being very difficult to manage at their end-of-life. While about 1% of sails are recut or repurposed into bags and jackets, the majority are stored or landfilled. Sails in landfill leach microplastics and heavy metals with even the smallest sail taking hundreds of years to degrade. However, by combining recent advances in chemical and biological engineering, Sustainable Sailing can recover high quality components of these sails, with potential to return the components into sails.

Founding Director Sam Penhaul said “We’re really proud to have won the Start Up Award. To win the award in Glasgow, one of the historic hubs of maritime innovation, feels very appropriate. We’re looking forward to our next steps in the business. Massive congratulations to all the shortlisted and winning companies and individuals.”

Ed Almond, IET Chief Executive and Secretary, added: “The Excellence and Innovation Awards shine a spotlight on the ground-breaking innovations and best practices in engineering, science and technology, and the fantastic trailblazers who are changing the course of our future. Congratulations to each and every one of our winners. With your skills, commitment and passion, you are proof of the positive difference that engineers can make in transforming our world for the better.”

If you are interested in knowing more, or partnering with Sustainable Sailing, please contact them via email: info@sustainablesailing.co.uk

CONTACT DETAILS

info@sustainablesailing.co.uk

IMAGE/VIDEO CAPTIONS

Photobank link:

https://bit.ly/3QDaZyT

https://innovationawards.theiet.org/the-awards/winners/

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aj_TKRjNEOuXt982-YxXNssaW9g4bQ?e=QLg5sR

NOTES TO EDITORS

Sustainable Sailing Ltd

Sustainable Sailing are a marine industry company developing the technologies for the future of the marine industry and beyond. As high-performance engineers and experts in green chemistry and biotechnology, we are taking advantage of dramatic advances in these fields, to build low carbon and circular economy solutions

About the IET

We inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community to engineer a better world. We are a diverse home for engineering and technology intelligence throughout the world. This breadth and depth means we are uniquely placed to help the sector progress society. We want to build the profile of engineering and technology to change outdated perceptions and tackle the skills gap. This includes encouraging more women to become engineers and growing the number of engineering apprentices. Interview opportunities are available with our spokespeople from a range of engineering and technology disciplines including cyber-security, energy, engineering skills, innovation, manufacturing, technology, transport and diversity in engineering. For more information, visit www.theiet.org. Follow the IET on X, Facebook and LinkedIn