Companies across the globe have had cause in recent times to concern themselves with the same existential problem: How do we combat climate change without going out of business? The maritime industry is no exception. As temperatures rise and legislation gets tougher, the industry has had to look at ways in which it can cut emission of greenhouse gases, develop alternate fuels and minimise disruption of marine life while furthering its own trade.

Wilh. Wilhelmsen has been working with these issues for several years now. With close to 400 offices in 73 countries and more than 4.3 million movements of autos and rolling equipments globally, the company says it sees no option but to be ‘an environmental frontrunner’ in the maritime industry.

The entire shipping industry needs to act against the negative impact of its operations upon the climate. If it does not do so, says Wilh. Wilhelmsen, shipping companies will find that they have no role to play in framing the conditions that govern their operations. Clearly, the company points out, if they don’t set the rules now, regulators outside the industry will.

An even more compelling reason for the industry to swing into action is that climate change is not really a threat to the shipping business. Instead, it opens up a case full of opportunities that could restore shipping to its heydays.

According to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), “Shipping is already, by far, the most carbon-efficient mode of commercial transport — some 30 times more efficient than cargo aviation.” This puts the industry at a position of natural advantage but the IMO warns: “The CO2 emission reduction which ships must aim to achieve should be at least as ambitious as the CO2 emission reduction agreed under any new United Nations Climate Change Convention.”

Cutting emissions is not just the environmentally right thing to do but it will also help the maritime industry become cost effective. Thus companies need to come together to arrive at a common framework within which each works out how to cut fuel emissions, innovate on the vessels that ply the waters, rethink sailing routines and routes, overhaul crew training procedures and develop services that minimise the damage caused to marine life and the environment. At

Wilh. Wilhelmsen, a slew of innovative projects are helping the company fight against a changing climate.

Projects for the planet

“The environment”, for Wilh. Wilhelmsen, “is an emerging opportunity” and it has launched an initiative named ACT which collects all the different practices and ideas related to the environment under one umbrella. ACT works towards solutions that tackle greenhouse gas emissions, water treatment and waste management across the organisation and provide direction to the company’s plans for dealing with climate change.

Wilh. Wilhelmsen plans to “use operational and technical means to reach environmental objectives. The initiatives aim to decrease consumption and waste based on the operations (technical services, terminal services, inland distribution).” The initiatives are also planned, executed and assessed at a local level. This helps the company devise solutions that meet the specific needs of the area and this in turn helps achieve better results.

For instance, the company’s technical services operations in North America have managed to go beyond the 10 percent reduction initiative on fuel consumption year on year. At other sites, there are other new technologies that have been set in motion and they too are bringing in impressive results. Some of the projects in progress are new trucks for movement of cargo, rain water and water reuse technologies for wash bays and installation of electric cars for on-wharf movement of personnel. “We are still working on a good system of consolidating figures for reporting of individual sites in a systematic way (including office-based emissions),” says the company.

Wilh. Wilhelmsen is working in close association with the IMO on a carbon emission regulatory system. It is also working towards the manufacture of emission-free vessels. One such vessel named Orcelle, after a species of dolphin that is fast going extinct, is expected to sail the waters very soon. It has also installed weather routing and management systems that help run its ships with greater efficiency besides being friendlier to the environment.

The company believes that “legislation in shipping is becoming stricter, in line with global ideals on emissions reductions, especially for sulphur. We will be very focused on meeting the current legislation for sulphur emissions, after spending the last 10 years well under the legislation that was in place. For nitrogen oxides we will apply the current legislation (focusing on new builds only from 2016) to our total fleet operations. And for CO2 emissions, the legislation is not currently in place, so we will already work on CO2 emissions reductions through optimisation of operations and fleet and then through better technical implementation on new buildings and retrofits.”

The company has also tied up with Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) for designing a weather routing system. According to the company, “The optimum route at sea can reduce fuel consumption and thereby CO2 emissions.” To ensure the optimal route is selected, the system analyses specific voyage data and recommends a route to meet requirements for on-time arrival, safety and fuel emissions reductions.

According to 2008 trials using the system, WWL estimates that the use of SMHI Weather Routing can decrease fuel consumption under optimal conditions by at least 5 per cent. “This corresponds to a reduction in CO2 emissions of almost 150,000 tonnes a year,”says Lennart Cederberg, product manager for SMHI Shipping, in a recent article for the company’s website. Wilh. Wilhelmsen’s actions are attuned to the overall EU vision for the maritime industry, unveiled at a conference at Brussels last year, titled ‘Seas at risk’. The consensus at the meet was that industry and government must align together to ensure that:

• Positive environmental image of shipping is maintained.
• Quality shipping is encouraged at global level.
• Long-term investments are supported. Since on an average, ships last 30 years, one must create a stable framework for operations.

There are several ways in which companies can mitigate the impact of climate change and these can be categorised as any of the following:

• Technical means — these are in the form of innovations in existing fleet or new vessels and are mainly driven by regulations in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
• Operational means — these are driven by shipping companies although some can also be introduced by IMO like introduction of speed limitations.
• Structural means — these involve reworking the ship-making and ship-handling processes and are mainly driven by port and canal authorities.
• Market and branding to spread awareness and is mainly driven by cargo owners and infrastructure operators.
• Fiscal instruments that would provide incentives for action on climate action and this is driven by regulators.

At Wilh. Wilhelmsen, these methods are incorporated in the projects envisaged to take the company’s environmental objectives forward.

Reaching out

It is important for the maritime industry to understand what climate change could mean for their operations; for otherwise, the initiatives would fail before they reach full potential. The major components of the reach-out plan are:

Influencing peers

• Use industry leadership position to drive understanding and acceptance for a concerted effort to protect the oceans.
• Curb climate change by hosting the “Environment Club” as an annual event for the media.

Influencing customers

• Organise customer events and ensure that company magazines include environmental presentations.
• Engage with customers on specific initiatives for reducing environmental impact.

Influencing the rest of the world

• Work through industry organisations and the IMO to support development of stricter regulations.
• Partner with WWF for specific projects .
• Lobby regulators to sharpen policy and enforce tougher rules.
• Use the Volvo Ocean Race to demonstrate environmental leadership and put key marine issues on the agenda.

The company also engages with its 18,000-odd employees spread across the world to drive global marine related issues. “We believe that empowered employees in an innovative, learning organisation are our main competitive advantage in meeting the needs and wants of our customers,” CEO Ingar Skaug said at a recent company meet. And they are going to play an invaluable role in realising the company’s vision of zero emissions.

Navigating the future

Environment is a key component of all future plans at Wilh. Wilhelmsen. It says, “Our long-term strategy is typically over five-year horizons, our environmental components are for 10 years.” The company’s intermediate environment goals are 30 per cent fuel reduction, sulphur content to come below 1.5 per cent and move towards 0.5 per cent, NOx emissions to be reduced by 50 per cent and a complete water and wasthe manage ment for all vessels by 2020. The objectives, if met, will bring about a substantial reduction. The company calculations show that for 160 vessels per year, CO2 emissions will be cut by 200,000 tonnes, sulphur emissions by 22,000 tonnes and nitrogen by 72,000 tones.

The company plans to continue to work with its stakeholders for furthering its environmental goals. “Our relationships with our owners are from an investment perspective and with NGOs such as WWF are for research and scientific knowledge. With industry groups it is through legislative connections and through an employee base where our environmental policy is widely understood, we can continue to improve.” In recent times Wilh. Wilhelmsen has set up an Orcelle fund for “leap frog” or out-of-the-box ideas which offers grants for high risk start up energy-related projects.

There is little doubt that the maritime industry will have to comply with stringent norms and deadlines in the coming years. Ongoing negotiations indicate that in Copenhagen in December, the industry will have to commit to a significant cut in emissions which would require an overhaul of operations and of the technologies in current use. At Wilh. Wilhelmsen, the sail to the last buoy is already underway.