La Ciotat Shipyards announce today the launch of a call for submissions by parties interested in taking out a tenancy on the last available lot in their new yachting village. The premises consists of a 380m2 workshop and is reserved for an innovative company manufacturing or developing a new product or service that will reduce the environmental footprint of either individual superyachts or of the superyacht refit industry in general.
The establishment of such a company will be the first milestone on the journey toward the setup of a “sustainable yachting cluster” in La Ciotat.
To encourage new and innovative companies with high R&D spending to participate in a competitive review process, the winner will be granted a significant discount on the rent for the first two years of residence.
Compared to traditional competitive procedures organized by LCS through their website www.laciotat-shipyards.com/en/companies-on-site/calls-for-projects/ for the allocation of available premises, this call for the project will incorporate two additional and outstanding characteristics :
- First, it will involve a jury composed of three institutions besides LCS that will each bring their own approach to sustainable development: the French maritime industry group (GICAN), the Directorate for economy and competitivity of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Métropole and the environmental association WeOcean;
- Second, the environmental selection criterion (accounting for 50% of the assessment process) will be based on a “Life Cycle Assessment”, a methodology codified by the international standard ISO 14040-44, and for the very first time being applied by the Water Revolution Foundation with the goal of comparing vendors and their products or services based on their sustainability.
According to Jean-Yves Saussol, CEO of La Ciotat Shipyards, “Through this competitive call for tenants, we are demonstrating our commitment to put long term competitiveness before short term profitability. I have absolutely no doubt that it would have been very easy to find a company to occupy this lot as we did for the others. However, we believe that the time to act for a greener superyacht industry is now. Ensuring the sustainability of our business is vital if we wish to preserve the viability of our sector in the coming decades”.
Robert van Tol, executive director of Water Revolution Foundation, adds that “We were founded to work together with yachting companies to drive sustainability, and this project by our partners LCS is a great example of this. Our foundation is developing tools for the industry that will help them to change their working practices into sustainable ones and as such make them fit for the future. I would like to praise La Ciotat Shipyards for this promising project and we look forward to play our parts. Hopefully this will inspire other yachting companies to follow suit and join this important movement. It is the way we need to go, and it will need to be a collective journey for the industry to adapt its course towards one of sustainability”.
Although the call for tenants is obviously open internationally, nevertheless Patrick Ghigonetto, the recently nominated President of LCS, stresses that “The Métropole Aix-Marseile-Provence is a very innovative territory, with a strong orientation toward sustainable development. We are therefore expecting excellent proposals from the local players. May the best candidate win !”
