Vineyard Cup

Since 2015, the Vineyard Cup was run as a zero-waste regatta serving locally sourced food grown or raised on Martha’s Vineyard. The locally sourced/zero waste model has been continually refined by Sail Matha’s Vineyard, first expanding amongst their own events, such as the Vineyard Challenge (held in 2015 and 2016), and sharing their sustainability plans and lessons learned with regattas around the country.

 

Visit the Vineyard Cup Website

Impact

  • The event’s efforts diverted 90% of their waste from the landfill through composting, recycling, and eliminating single-use products common at regattas, such as disposable cups, straws, and service ware.
  • Three days of events with over 900 meals served resulted in only three cubic feet of waste going to the landfill.
  • The island of Martha’s Vineyard came together to supply locally sourced food, including wild-caught sustainable seafood, island-grown vegetables, and locally raised pigs.
  • Sail Martha’s Vineyard helped other island events reduce their waste with the knowledge learned at this event, including the Hospice 5k Roadrace, the MV Film Festival’s Cinema Circus, the MV Museum fundraiser, and the MV Agricultural Society Fair this year.

Background

Sail Martha’s Vineyard hosted the Vineyard Cup in an environmentally responsible manner and sought to position Sail Martha’s Vineyard as the leading marine environmental and sustainability advocate and educator on the Island of Martha’s Vineyard while developing and promoting an environmentally responsible and economic event model of sustainability.