Bluewater helps The Ocean Race in its drive for sustainability by avoiding the need for over 40,000 single use plastic bottles during Cape Town stopover

Cape Town, South Africa, 2 March, 2023 – High performance public water stations from Bluewater, a world leader in providing sustainable and inclusive access to purified water for people around the globe, dispensed over 21,536 liters of great tasting water to spectators and sailors at The Ocean Race stopover village in Cape Town, avoiding the need for over 40,000 500ml plastic water bottles. With over one million single-use plastic bottles produced every minute and most ending up in landfill or the oceans, installing Bluewater’s state-of-the-art hydration stations is helping The Ocean Race end the reliance on single-use plastic bottles and their associated detrimental impacts, such as marine pollution.

Janneke Brasecke, Bluewater Africa General Manager, says that partnerships with responsible organisers of prestigious sports events and festivals such as The Ocean Race, are key to Bluewater realising their vision of ending the need for single-use plastics: “High profile events draw huge crowds, and not only can we assist in lessening the need for single-use plastic, but the presence of our hydration stations helps to make people think about where their water is coming from and what they, as an individual, can do to contribute positively to our planet.”

Bluewater’s collaboration with The Ocean Race has a long history, with both organisations spotlighting the broad range of impacts plastics are having on ocean health and biodiversity, and putting in place programmes for awareness and education, as well as providing innovative solutions to mitigate environmental impact.

“We're so happy to partner with Bluewater here in Cape Town. When the race was here back in 2018 the region was in severe drought, so to be able to provide pure, plastic-free drinking water to visitors was a great achievement. Since then, Bluewater has provided water to events all around Cape Town, and they again made this possible for our 2023 stopover,” says Meegan Jones, Senior Sustainability Programme Advisor for The Ocean Race.

In addition to the support of The Ocean Race in its quest for sustainability, Bluewater is also the Official Supplier to 11th Hour Racing Team for The Ocean Race 2022-23, installing its hydration stations in 11th Hour Racing Team base at each stopover. The team and Bluewater share an intrinsic connection to the ocean and share a similar vision for a more sustainable future.

For more information, please contact Bluewater PR and Communications Director at david.noble@bluewatergroup.com

About Bluewater

Bluewater has set its sights on being the world’s most planet-friendly beverage company by innovating disruptive water purification technologies for home, work and play. Providing health-enhancing hydration solutions which are generated and distributed at point of use, combined with reusable stainless steel and glass bottles, allows Bluewater to break the stranglehold of single-use plastic bottles and their unnecessary, polluting transportation. Bluewater products are available to consumers, hotel and catering operations, and event and venue organization in Europe, the USA, the UK, China, South-East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Bluewater has been honored with two Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards, a K&B Kitchen Innovation of the Year Award and recognized for its sustainability efforts by numerous other publications. In 2022, Bluewater acquired the U.S. Flowater water company, based in Denver, Colorado, which sells advanced water dispensers throughout North America that help a wide cross section of businesses efficiently avoid the use of single-use plastic bottles. bluewatergroup.com

About The Ocean Race

Since 1973, The Ocean Race has provided the ultimate test of a team and a human adventure like no other. For nearly 50 years, it has kept an almost mythical hold over some of the greatest sailors and been the proving ground for the legends of our sport.

The 14th edition of The Ocean Race started from Alicante, Spain on 15 January 2023, and will finish in Genova, Italy early in the summer of 2023. The race visits nine iconic cities around the globe over a six-month period (Alicante, Spain - Cabo Verde - Cape Town, South Africa - Itajaí, Brazil - Newport, RI, USA - Aarhus, Denmark - Kiel Fly-By, Germany - The Hague, the Netherlands - Genova, Italy) and features a leg with the longest racing distance in the 50-year history of the event - a 12,750 nautical mile, one-month marathon from Cape Town, South Africa to Itajaí, Brazil. The IMOCA fleet of mixed crews will pass all three great southern Capes - Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, Cape Horn - non-stop, for the first time. Along with five confirmed foiling IMOCA teams racing around the world, six one-design VO65 boats will race on three legs with an option to compete for a new trophy within The Ocean Race called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup. theoceanrace.com

About 11th Hour Racing Team

11th Hour Racing Team was formed in September 2019 and is led by American offshore sailors Charlie Enright and Mark Towill. Supported by title sponsor 11th Hour Racing, the Team’s mission is to build a high-performance ocean racing team with sustainability at the core of all operations, inspiring positive action among sailing and coastal communities, and global sports fans to create long-lasting change for ocean health. Towill and Enright have competed in the last two editions of The Ocean Race and the team is racing in the inaugural, fully-crewed IMOCA Class of The Ocean Race 2022-23 with their next-generation race boat - Mālama. Learn more at 11thhourracingteam.org