2Sustain

The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), part of the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), recently adopted mandatory measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from international shipping. Approved last month at IMO Headquarters in London, these are the first-ever mandatory global greenhouse emissions plan for any international industry sector.

The new regulations apply to all ships of 400 gross tonnage and above and are expected to enter into force on January 1, 2013.

The standard for new ships, the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI), is a non-prescriptive performance-based mechanism that leaves the choice of energy efficient technologies on newly-built ships up to the shipbuilder. As long as ships achieve the required energy-efficient metrics, ship designers and builders are at liberty to choose the most cost-effective methods needed to comply with these new regulations.

An additional standard, the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP), applies to ships currently in operation. The SEEMP provides a mechanism for operators to improve the energy efficiency of ships (using slow steaming, e.g.).

As you might expect, not everyone is satisfied with the IMO’s new standards. Critics note that developing countries have a six-year waiver, and the rules only apply to new ships replacing old ones. (more…)

Sprint, the third-largest wireless provider in the US, has finished at the top of the class in ForestEthics’ 2011 Green Grades Report Card.

In its fifth annual report card, ForestEthics gave Sprint the highest score, an “A,” in recognition of the company’s work to reduce the impact that its paper consumption has on the world’s forests.

This year, ForestEthics rated 12 large companies in the telecommunications, insurance and credit card sectors.  What’s the common denominator among these three sectors?  They all are noted for their heavy consumption of paper, especially those direct marketing offers that end up in our mailboxes.

Sprint received the highest grade for the following reasons: (more…)

Could wind power help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping industry?

Cargill wants to find out. The company has partnered with Hamburg-based SkySails to use innovative kite technology to help power large shipping vessels.

According to a press release, next December Cargill will install a 320m2 SkySails kite on a handysize vessel of between 25,000 and 30,000 deadweight tonnes, which the company has on long-term charter. Reportedly, this will then be the largest-ever vessel propelled by a kite.

SkySails estimates that the kite, which flies ahead of the vessel, can generate enough propulsion to reduce consumption of bunker fuel by up to 35 percent in ideal sailing conditions. The kite functions at a height of between 100 to 420 meters and flies in a figure-eight formation, steered by an automatic control system.

G.J. van den Akker, head of Cargill’s ocean transportation business, called the SkySail’s project “a meaningful first step” towards driving environmental best practice within the shipping industry. (more…)

I first wrote about UPS’s carbon neutral shipping option when it was first launched in the US back in 2009. Last week, the company announced that it is expanding the availability of this popular program.

Now, customers in many countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas can select carbon neutral as an option within the UPS WorldShip shipping system.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, WorldShip is UPS’s full-featured, Windows-based shipping software designed for customers who ship five or more packages per day. With more than 550,000 installations worldwide, WorldShip is one of the most widely deployed transportation software applications in the world.

UPS’s recent announcement means that the majority of the company’s WorldShip customer base now have the option of paying a small fee to calculate and offset the carbon emissions associated with their shipments. (more…)

Working within the framework of the World Ports Climate Initiative, six European ports have collaborated to launch an initiative to reward ships that cut emissions.

Beginning in January, the ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Le Havre will offer financial incentives to ships that perform better than the emissions standard adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) back in 2008. The cornerstone of this new initiative is the Environmental Ship Index (ESI), which essentially calculates a ship’s green performance. (more…)