September 2026 WATERLINE | 21 FEATURE ENVIRONMENT, DECARBONISATION & SUSTAINABILITY ENVIRONMENTAL BEST PRACTICE Australian legal requirements & definition s Key areas of pollution & potential impact on marina business Water, Land & Air pollutio n Handling of dangerous goods in relation to our environment Waste management & disposa l Refuelling considerations Reporting incidents 2 hour self-paced anytime online course includes: marinas.net.au MIA members - $170 Non-members - $230 (excluding GST) CUTTING CARBON AT THE MATERIAL LEVEL A DOCK CONSTRUCTION CASE STUDY Since marina infrastructure has a design life of several decades, the choices made today have a lasting impact on environmental footprint. One example of that thinking in practice comes from Poralu Marine, a subsidiary of Wearth Group, which launched a group-wide carbon footprint assessment to measure its emissions before designing decarbonisation solutions. The results shaped its priorities: raw material supplies accounted for three quarters of the group's global emissions, making it the top priority, while standard docks being 100% recyclable already limit end-of-life impact; and transport, counter-intuitively, proved far from being a major contributor. That diagnosis led the group to focus on the raw material supply chain, starting with its aluminium docks. The R&D team developed the Harmony finish under one key constraint: keeping performance, durability, and aesthetic strictly identical to existing products. The aluminium structure of the Harmony finish contains 75% recycled aluminium and only 25% primary aluminium, cutting the material's carbon impact by 64% (2.92 kg CO2 eq./kg vs. 8.10 kg CO2 eq./kg). The floats combine at least 50% recycled polyethylene with expanded polystyrene made of 80% recycled material, while preserving the 15-year warranty and full functionality. A newly developed composite decking, made of recycled PVC combined with bio-sourced rice husk, was created after extensive technical testing, cutting emissions by 23% compared to standard composite wood decking. To validate the approach, an independent third-party consultant was commissioned to carry out an additional life-cycle assessment (LCA) using the PEF method, the EU standard methodology for product LCA. The group decided to work exclusively with suppliers able to provide traceability certificates, deliberately excluding "mass balance" approaches for their lack of transparency. As a result, on a standard 12m x 2.5m dock system, the Harmony finish line achieves a carbon footprint reduction between 48 to 53% depending on the decking option chosen, while remaining 100% recyclable. Now integrated into both the Harmony line and the Premium finish, this brings Wearth Group significantly closer to its target of a 4.2% annual carbon reduction over 10 years: by reaching just over 50% of its production via Harmony outputs within five years, the group would already achieve 75% of that objective. Wearth Group 2021 carbon footprint assessment results Harmony finish dock system in Graphit Universe version
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI3ODI1