World’s first club to be Carbon Literate

Open water swimming is a legitimate sport, not an extreme adventure and a very low-carbon, environmentally friendly alternative to swimming at an aquatic centre.

Our club, Melbourne Open Water Swimming Club is part of Masters Swimming Australia and a Parks Victoria Licensed Tour Operator, meaning we are ensuring our members are participating in as safe and responsible environment as possible.

Thanks to the Carbon Literacy Project we have undergone carbon literacy training, assessed our footprint and are addressing our carbon risks.

Thanks to Parks Victoria we are providing a responsible, licensed, insured avenue for participating in open water swimming. All our swim group leaders are accredited, trained and experienced. All our groups operate with support and risk-assessed safety plans including full First Aid kits with a defibrillator. Our training partner, LifeSaving First Aid provides us with training for our volunteers and discounts for our members:

Many of our swimmers are members of Masters Swimming Australia and participate in championship events. Others are Open Water members of our club and participate in our (largely non-competitive) events, classes and swim groups.

Recently our club was awarded Bronze level accreditation from the Carbon Literacy Project and we have sent a video acceptance speech, rather than flying to Manchester for the ceremony.