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OneWorld goes green

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- America's Cup team OneWorld will plant 10,000 trees on two New Zealand islands as part of its environmental programme.

The OneWorld team has already spent time in the Seattle area on stream restoration and on cleaning up Auckland beaches.

OneWorld will work with Motutapu Island Restoration Trust and with a restoration project on Motorura Island where the team members will personally plant approximately 10,000 trees before the start of racing in October, the team said.

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These islands are a few miles from the America's Cup race course.

The team worked with environmental group Island Care New Zealand to clean beaches during the last southern hemisphere winter and used its chase boats to transport rubbish to a central collection point.

The team said it plans to do regular beach clean-ups when a lack of wind prevents them from sailing during the competition.

The Seattle syndicate has also been encouraging schoolchildren in Auckland and Seattle to respect the health to the planet.

OneWorld's Environmental Education Programmes Director Sean Brealey has presented an education programme on the history of the America's Cup, the physics of the boats, and the health of Earth and the oceans to about 7000 children.

Brealey hopes to have educated more than 20,000 pupils by the beginning of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series.

In Auckland, OneWorld sends its waste aluminum, steel, titanium, plastic, office paper, shredded paper, cardboard boxes and glass to recycling companies.

Rain water run-off from the OneWorld buildings is collected in a large holding tank and used for the daily wash-down of sails and the two boats when they are lifted out of the water after sailing each day.