Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) was named winner of the SponsorRing 2014 award in the ‘Society’ category for its sponsorship of the Boskalis Beach Cleanup Tour, an event organized each August by the North Sea Foundation to clear waste from the entire Dutch North Sea shoreline. The SponsorRing is the annual award for the best sponsorship cases in the Netherlands, the company said in its press release.
The jury stated that the sponsorship by Boskalis had given the North Sea Foundation a huge boost towards achieving its goals. The jury also noted that there is a one-on-one link with the Boskalis area of operation – sea and beach – and that it is a very concrete and relevant project which has produced significant results.
Boskalis has been the main sponsor of the Beach Cleanup Tour since 2013. Each year the North Sea Foundation teams up with volunteers – including a large number of Boskalis employees – during the month of August to clean up the entire Dutch North Sea coast over a length of 350 kilometers. This year nearly 1,500 participants cleared over 20,000 kilos of waste, a trebling of both the number of participants and the amount of waste cleared compared to 2013.
With the Boskalis Beach Cleanup Tour the North Sea Foundation seeks to raise social awareness for the growing problem of waste – particularly plastic – in the oceans and on the beaches and the negative impact this has on marine animals and birds. The North Sea Foundation also researches the waste items collected and uses the results to lobby politicians and businesses to reduce sources of waste. As the main sponsor Boskalis provides the funding needed to organize the Beach Cleanup Tour, contributes towards raising social awareness and helps with the actual cleanup operation through the voluntary support of Boskalis employees.