Clipper Ventures is the company behind the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, the world’s longest ocean adventure, which trains everyday people to become ocean racers. For over 28 years, Clipper has been making global yacht racing accessible to all, regardless of previous sailing experience. 

Beyond the race, Clipper Ventures delivers corporate sailing experiences, team development programs, and adventure tourism activities. With a global fleet and operations spanning international waters, Clipper Ventures recognised that their unique position to create positive impact through adventure, collaboration and innovation.

While Clipper Ventures has a natural connection to the ocean and sustainability more broadly, tracking progress and demonstrating impact was difficult. The team knew valuable sustainability work was happening across different areas of the business, but it wasn’t formalised or centrally coordinated.

Clipper Ventures’ wanted to:

• Understand their sustainability baseline
• Define clear sustainability priorities for their operations
• Align racing and corporate activities under one strategy
• Prepare for evolving regulations
• Identify practical opportunities to reduce environmental impact and maximise positive social impact

Clipper Ventures partnered with FuturePlus, using the FutureImpact Sustainability measurement and management platform alongside consultancy support to develop a practical, measurable strategy.

Working together, we:

• Assessed Clipper Ventures’ sustainability baseline using the FuturePlus Impact ESG assessment, gathering data from across operations
• Identified gaps and practical improvements 
• Built a sustainability strategy with clear public communications
• Updated core sustainability policies and training
• Identified impact driven partnerships and community engagement opportunities

Since partnering with FuturePlus, Clipper Ventures’ sustainability performance has steadily improved. Their FuturePlus Actual score has increased by 47%, and they’re preparing to continue to improve on this. 

Practical examples of progress include a storage clear-out in Gosport, where approximately 300 pieces of used Musto foul weather gear were donated rather than discarded. Following a waste hierarchy approach, the company donated the gear to:

• British Divers Marine Life Rescue – to support volunteers rescuing marine animals
• National Oceanography Centre – to assist with scientific expeditions and university watersports programs
• Oxford Sailability – to help people with disabilities experience sailing
• Seas Your Future – to support youth sailing programs

This initiative alone diverted around 150-250kg of clothing from waste streams while extending the life of durable equipment.

With FuturePlus’s continued support, Clipper Ventures is building on this foundation to expand impact reporting and continue developing as a responsible organisation in the adventure tourism and racing sector.