The Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe is a race that fascinates and inspires. So, it is our responsibility to make it a race that also unites people around great sporting adventures but also around causes that matter. This is why we will make this legendary transatlantic a platform for raising awareness for the protection of the ocean. The ambition is simple: by using our voice and by connecting all parties to act, we wish to make this race that we love so much a force for the preservation of marine biodiversity and an accelerator of responsible innovations, on behalf of the ocean.

OC Sport Pen Duick – the event’s organising company – has chosen to join forces with Surfrider Foundation Europe in this great adventure. Their teams will raise awareness about the preservation and protection of the ocean.

This partnership can be a lever to raise unprecedented awareness. Many activities will be carried out on the 150m2 stand made available to the NGO, every day during the two weeks of the start village in Saint-Malo. Among the many actions, visitors will be able to participate in interactive workshops, including ‘The surprises of the tide’ and ‘The ocean fresco’, to learn more about the different types of ocean pollution.

That's not all: a big conference day that will be open to all will be held on October 28 at the Palais du Grand Large as well as an organised waste collection on November 1.

Can't come to the Surfrider stand?
Don't worry, many tutorials for making healthy and ocean-friendly products are available online here.

And since zero waste does not stop at cosmetics or cleaning products, the Ocean's Zero application offers 25 challenges to carry out yourself, in your own time, to limit your daily waste production. Find out more here!

In addition to raising awareness among the public, Surfrider Foundation Europe works with all players in society and invests in the fight against aquatic litter, for the quality of water and the health of users and for coastal development adapted to climate change. The levers of action used by the NGO are education, scientific expertise (including data collection) and political advocacy to change laws and defend the Ocean with European authorities.

After carrying out its first carbon impact report in 2018, OC Sport Pen Duick is committed to transforming the way in which major sailing races are organised over the long term. This means limiting the environmental footprint of the event, while giving each visitor the means to enjoy the best possible experience and minimising the generation of greenhouse gases.

OC Sport Pen Duick is collaborating with its technical suppliers Toovalu and Carbone 4 to carry out a new carbon assessment of the event to identify the areas that emit the most greenhouse gases (GHG), to define a course for reduction in the medium and long term, and to establish an action plan for the future.

The ‘Bilan Carbone’ is a method developed by the ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency) to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of a company, an event, a product or an individual.
This exercise is essential to implement the most effective CO2 emission reduction actions. These emissions are divided into 3 scopes:

Transport accounts for nearly 75% of the event's GHG emissions. OC Sport Pen Duick has therefore signed an exclusive partnership with the SNCF. By making additional trains available, by offering timetables adapted to the event and by setting up special rates, the objective is to facilitate and encourage the maximum amount of people to access the event by rail. Up to 17 trains per day are planned between Rennes and Saint-Malo as well as return trains until 10:30 p.m!

And to encourage all forms of soft mobility, charging stations have been installed around the village by our partner Emeraude Solaire and carpooling solutions will be facilitated through a partnership with StadiumGo.

Thanks to new energy partnerships, OC Sport Pen Duick is accelerating its own transition to greener energies, by limiting the use of fossil fuels, particularly for heating.

Beyond challenging all our actions with a view to minimising the carbon impact of the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe, we are launching a 100% local carbon offsetting plan in collaboration with our technical supplier TerraTerre. The idea is simple: support virtuous and regenerative agricultural initiatives - carried out near Saint-Malo - which help to sequester significant quantities of CO2 while supporting a dynamic of sustainable employment. Regenerative agriculture also has many additional benefits, such as improving the quality of water and soil, as well as preserving the surrounding biodiversity.