Zero Emission Shipping is around the corner! 

Last week, we presented the shipping route between Central America and North America soon to be offered by Sailcargo Inc  and its flagship Ceiba. 

On this week’s episode, we receive Jean Zanuttini,  CEO of Neoline, shipping start up based  in Nantes, France. 

Renault, Beneteau, Manitou, Hennessy, Michelin, Clarins, Longchamp – the list of Neoline’s  marquee customers onboarding on zero carbon shipping is impressive! 

Since announcing the construction of its first two 136m ro-ro vessel, Neoline has been closely watched by the shipping industry.  

Thank you Jean for telling us more about Neoline: the inspiration behind the project, the design of the Neoliner, the niche market you are addressing, the challenges of  financing such an asset, the operational model to fit your customers’ supply chain and much more!

The SailCargo project has been on our radar since we launched the podcast; we are delighted to receive  Danielle Doggett, the CEO and co-founder of SailCargo Inc, on our 15th episode. 

Danielle, calling us from AstilleroVerde, the jungle shipyard in  Punta Morales, Costa Rica, tells us more about the construction of Ceiba, a cargo vessel designed to carry 250 tons of goods.  

Creating a shipyard from scratch in the jungle, bringing foreign investment in one of the poorest regions of Costa Rica are two of the many challenges overcome by Danielle and her team – an amazing and so inspiring project. 

Thank you Danielle, Lynx and John for making this live!

In this week episode, we welcome Kris Fumberger, the head of sustainability and environment at RightShip. 

RightShip is used by charterers, banks, insurances to better understand performances of a vessel. Initially focused on safety,  demande for due diligence on the environmental side has been growing since 2012.  

Kris walks us through the GHG ratings methodology used at RightShip and the tools and analytics provided to  better understand vessel performance and associated risk.

This week, we receive Madeline Rose, Climate Campaign Director at Pacific Environment to present the report Shady Ships – Retail Giants Pollute Communities and Climate with Fossil-Fueled Ocean Shipping.

Pacific Environment, a global environmental organisation dedicated to the preservation of communities and wildlife of the Pacific Rim, has been working on cleaner shipping policies for 15 years, with a consultative seat at the IMO for 10 years.  

“Everyone is talking about transportation decarbonization, i.e. how to electrify cars, how do we electrify trucks. That conversation has not extended to the seas. Ocean shipping is really getting a free pass in the public conversation about transportation decarbonization.”

Recognizing the retail companies, the actual cargo owners  are left out and not actively participating in the forums on decarbonization, Pacific Environment decided to  kick start a conversation on the responsibilities of the largest  retailers in the US . 

This initial investigation was produced to better understand the pollution and public health impact of maritime shipping, i.e. the shipping of  imported goods in the US: 

By importing goods to the U.S. on dirty, fossil fueled ships in 2019, just 15 retail companies emitted as much climate pollution as the energy use of 1.5 million U.S. homes.

“These major companies are hiding from the public the true amount of pollution they produce from their supply chain. Of the top 15 maritime importers in the US, only Ikea and Nike are reporting their ocean maritime emissions” 

“Amazon just launched Shipment Zero – making a commitment to their customers that there will be zero emissions of their products from the  warehouse to their front door. But they completely omitted everything it takes to get a product from Asia all the way across the Pacific Ocean to the warehouse”

On 5 December 2017, the United Nations declared that a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development would be held from 2021 to 2030. The Ocean Decade provides a common framework to ensure that ocean science can fully support countries to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

We are very pleased to receive this week Millicent Pitts, the executive director of The Ocean Exchange ™️, one of the many ongoing projects.

The Ocean Exchange ™️ was started 10 years ago: it is an optimistic, forward looking and solutions oriented ecosystem builder with the sole mission to help advance the adoption of innovative solutions for healthy oceans & resilient and sustainable coastal systems.

This summer, they have 4 awards for a total grant of $235,000, with an open call for solutions  helping ocean preservation as well as decarbonization of the maritime transport.

Deadline is August 23 for the Neptune and Orcelle Awards with each $100,000 award. Below is the link to apply – https://lnkd.in/dAU_nEUC

In this week episode, we look at vessel design and energy savings with our guest Konstantinos Fakiolas, a Greek naval architect who moved to Finland a few years ago to specialize in energy efficiency and wind assist technologies.

Kostas is the author of the reference book Wind Propulsion Principles, a complete guide to harvesting the winds for commercial shipping, edition 2.0 was released in December 2020. 

In this interview, Kostas details  the 3 main wind assist technologies – Flettner, Wing Sail and Kite, providing a hands on analysis of benefits and limitations for each of them. 

As Europe’s busiest seaport, Rotterdam is buzzing with conversations about climate change, clean energy, and building the vessels of tomorrow.  In today’s episode, we speak with Katarin Van Orshaegen, the Commercial Lead at GoodShipping, a Dutch-based company that guides ship owners who are ready to look beyond fossil fuels but don’t know where to start.

Speaking from her office overlooking the port of Amsterdam, we discussed the problems and opportunities ship owners face when deciding how to fuel their cargo vessels in an era of more choices, legislation around decarbonization, environmentally aware and engaged customers, costly lawsuits, and aging fleets.

She pointed out that in 2021, manufacturers who import and export overseas have very few options to reduce the Scope 3 emissions created by moving their goods across the oceans.

Carbon offsetting is usually the choice of those manufacturers; however, carbon offsetting doesn’t directly reduce the emissions, it simply pays a premium price for being a polluter.

GoodShipping enters the picture as the first sustainable shipping initiative in the world, offering companies the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint by switching their cargo shipping activities to biofuel.  So far, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive as evidenced by winning clients like IKEA and being highlighted as carbon insetting frontrunners by DHL and Smart Freight Center (SFC)

Through this interview, Katarin details how two Dutch, purpose driven sister companies make this possible: 
– GoodShipping customers finance the introduction of biofuels in the fuel mix, insetting their scope 3 emissions.  
– GoodFuels produce sustainable biofuels from many types of waste, then deliver the biofuel to the selected vessel within a fleet. 

We offer a huge thanks to Katarin for teaching us about carbon insetting, the Mass Balance principle and for clarifying that drop-in biofuels DO NOT require ship owners to retrofit the fuel apparatus in their vessels.  

Good Shipping is now available to US companies.

In this week episode, we interview Tuomas Riski, a passionate Finnish entrepreneur, a citizen of the world who decided to act to reduce the global carbon emissions.

In 2012, Tuomas founded Norsepower Oy Ltd, bringing to the market a 21st century version of the Flettner Rotor.

At a time the carbon intensity of a vessel becomes critical, Tuomas Riski presents the use case of the M/V Estraden, a Ro-Ro vessel equipped with 2 mechanics sails since 2014.

M/V Estraden sails the North Sea, on a typical route between the UK and the Netherlands. The 2 rotor sails, 18m high each, save 400,000 kg of fuel on an annual basis.

We started this podcast to feature not only established firms using wind propulsion, but to give up-and-comers a chance to describe their journey.  In our conversation with Charlie Bogue, Director of Market Development & Strategy at Wind + Wing Technologies, we hear how a young company won a coveted bid to retrofit passenger ferries in the San Francisco Bay.  

While competing against larger companies with longer histories and bigger gas tanks, Wind & Wing Technologies edged out the field by suggesting a hybrid solution with an eye to efficient routes, passenger satisfaction and low environmental impact.  The  approach piqued the interest of local legislators and ferry operators who praised an affordable and low-carbon answer to moving commuters across the bay. 

Raised in the Bay Area and currently living in Europe, Charlie’s opinions on ship decarbonization, input from lawmakers, short sea shipping, market uptake in Europe and autonomous vessels are informed by his cross-borders experience.  

He also told us about his role as the sole Yankee on the Executive Committee of the International WindShip Association (IWSA), and how as membership continues to grow, so does the urgency to present a cohesive message across the board. 

 Charlie’s passion for wind power grew from his childhood sailing trips with family on the West Coast and a concurrent career as the Director of Charters & Marketing for Adventure Cat Sailing, which takes 40,000 tourists per year on catamaran cruises under the Golden Gate Bridge.