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Ecowatt Sponsors the Arabian Ocean Rowing team’s Attempt to Row the Atlantic

Ecowatt, the green investment platform building renewable energy plants and funding social impact projects, have announced that they will be partnering with the Arabian Ocean Rowing Team as a proud Gold Sponsor. The team are set to become the first UAE flagged boat to row completely unassisted and unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean and are doing so in a bid to raise critical awareness about clean energy sources and oceanic plastic pollution.

Ecowatt’s engagement will ensure crucial financial support but will also underscore their commitment as a sustainable green investment enterprise.

We’re delighted to join forces with the Arabian Ocean Rowing Team,” said Thomas Puskas, Founder and CEO of Ecowatt. “As a company with a focus on the United Arab Emirates, we were struck by the work the team is doing in the region. To partner in their landmark sporting achievement, especially in a sustainable way, is a real honour.”

The three-man team will depart on 12 December as part of the “Atlantic Campaigns Challenge”, and will consume water drawn only from the ocean (by means of desalination, powered by electricity generated only from on-board solar power.

Months of training in preparation for the big row attempt.

One of our goals in this challenge is to highlight just what is possible in a sustainable environment,” said team founder Toby Gregory. “Operating all our critical and lifesaving systems communications and navigation by solar power alone, drinking desalinated sea water, propelling ourselves by the strength of our own bodies.”

Gregory said that to have an innovative green energy company like Ecowatt partner with them in their mission was the perfect fit: “Ecowatt share our passion for the environment and are committed to a range of initiatives, including ending marine plastic pollution. Their support of our efforts has been relentless, and we can’t thank them enough for their support and to have them join us as partners speaks volumes about their company mission.”

The men on a mission from left to right: James Raley, Toby Gregory and Raimundo Tamagnini.

This is Ecowatt’s second successive sporting partnership after the company made headlines as the new training kit sponsors for FA Premier League club Southampton FC. Ecowatt’s partnership with the team is structured in a way to help them reach the top of the “sustainability league”, a league tabling the most environmentally positive clubs in the Premier League.

Part of that opportunity is to calculate the AORT’s carbon emissions for the duration of their gargantuan crossing and provide them with carbon credits to offset those emissions, especially when the team is required to mobilise the boat to the start point in the Canary Islands, and back from the race’s end point in Antigua. This carbon offsetting process is a key service of Ecowatt, and is helping them fast become the leading sustainability partner for major brands and athletes active in the fight against climate change.

The Arabian Ocean Rowing Team is made up of Toby Gregory, an Ultra Endurance Athlete; Raimundo Tamagnini, a Portuguese Ironman competitor; and James Raley, a British Army Veteran. The team will spend between 40 and 60 days in an 8 metre vessel and will work in 2 hour shifts to row the 5,000-kilometre voyage.