Shipping has been important to trade since trading became over five millennia ago, and used greatly by civilizations that have come and gone. However, the growing concern about sustainability and ethical industries is an important conversation with the essence of environmentally friendly changes much needed to ensure that the future will be one that is livable. What are green shipping initiatives?
To ensure that global industries as a whole are sustainable well into the far future, it is important that changes are done now in the present. Shipping, logistics and freight companies hold the dynamics of global trade together and ensuring that the shift to green shipping initiatives are taken is truly important.
In order to reduce environmental impacts, the status quo in the logistics, freight and shipping industries are also changing with newer technologies being introduced as well as enforcing regulations to ensure that global sustainability goals are met. The likes of the IMO (which is the International Maritime Organization) has in the recent past enacted such regulations towards their pledge to reduce global maritime shipping emission in half by 2050 (as compared to 2008 numbers).
Further green shipping initiatives include the sulfur fuel cap that was enforced starting January 2020 , which states that a marine vessel’s fuel can only contain 0.5% sulfur (previous cap being 3.5%). This specific green shipping initiatives has been enforced to reduce the impacts of acid rain and premature deaths.
Drag reduction is another green shipping initiative which directly affects vessel efficiency and fuel usage/optimization. New processes to get rid of marine growth which will ultimately help in fuel usage is present, from use of special marine cleaners (some of which are considered eco-friendly are present) to robotic cleaners, and frequent touch ups with marine paint to prevent occurrences of marine growth that will in turn reduce drag reduction and also improve fuel efficiencies.
Use of application programming interfaces help with data efficiencies to assist different data sharing platforms make better decisions concerning efficiencies be it fuel management, supply chain and overall logistical support from end to end. One of the most obvious of green shipping initiatives, is the use of eco friendly packaging, avoiding the use of plastics and opting for biodegradable packaging options. The way in which .green shipping initiatives are gradually being rolled out is to make the process of adaption easier on companies that will be required to adopt newer technologies into their vessels, processes and systems.