Captain Nigel Marrison, the man behind Blue ESG - Written by Richard Hagen
We all have a lockdown story to tell.
But while most of us will tell stories about how much we missed seeing our family and friends, or about the obscene amount of Netflix bingeing we did or the pants sizes we gained, Captain Nigel Marrison decided to change the world of yachting forever. And he plans to do just that with his new company: Blue ESG.
We caught up with Captain Marrison and chatted about sustainability in yachting and caring about people, and about a gargantuan mass of stranded assets.
Lockdown & the birth of Blue ESG
An unforeseeable chain of events saw Captain Marrison ashore and without a yacht just as the lockdown began.
The time ashore provided unusual space for reflection and planning, as he recalled. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit and I felt that my experience as a leader on yachts could be put to better use, to make yachting better. I realised that I had an opportunity to impact not only the crew with whom I worked on board but also the industry in general.”
Those self-reflections soon turned to bigger issues facing the yachting industry. “I asked myself: ‘What purpose does yachting actually have? What longevity does the industry have, given its reputation as a gas-guzzling, high-polluter lacking value and purpose? And given the climate crisis, how long will it be until people are throwing rocks at superyachts? Will next-generation crew and owners really want to engage with such an activity?”
And so, he decided to establish Blue ESG.