 WorkBoat Magazine has announced that Explorer is the recipient of a new Environmental Award, edging out fierce competition that included major international companies. Executive Director Karl Thomas accepted the award on behalf of RiverQuest on December 3 at the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans, LA. The award brings national attention to RiverQuest. It included the description below:
"RiverQuest has completed its new flagship, M/V Explorer, a 150-passenger excursion vessel to be used for river-based environmental education. M/V Explorer is also one of the greenest passenger vessels in the world. It features the ELFA™ system from Siemens, a diesel-electric battery hybrid propulsion system - the first in a USCG-certified commercial vessel in the US. RiverQuest has applied sustainable design to virtually every aspect of M/V Explorer’s construction and is the first company to apply the entire US Green Building Council’s LEED™ standards to a vessel's design, construction and operation.
In 2004 when this project began, there were no green boat standards. RiverQuest had to first determine what a “green” motorized vessel meant. RiverQuest figured it out by putting together global expertise in boat design, alternative propulsions systems, specialists in the US Green Building Council’s LEED™ standards and a team of great vendors.
M/V Explorer made her 1,600-mile maiden voyage to Pittsburgh from the Gulf Coast in August 2008. RiverQuest will celebrate a public grand opening in Spring 2009 at their docks in downtown Pittsburgh."
Upon accepting the award, Thomas sent the good news to staff. "2009 will truly be a year of exciting growth and change as we build on the accomplishments of 2008," Thomas wrote, "and as we put Explorer to work doing what she was designed and built to do - educate, explore and inspire." |
