News Content
Is shipping a dinosaur?
Turning a tanker around is shorthand for undertaking difficult change – and doing it slowly. But does that image really represent the future of the shipping industry? Helle Gleie, Director of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative talks to Martin Beaver. Mankind has been trading by sea since Noah was a lad. Shipping is, with only few exceptions, the most energy- and cost-efficient form of transportation and carries around 90 per cent of global trade. This is unlikely to change in any foreseeable future.
But that does not mean the future shipping industry will bear any resemblance to when Noah actually was a lad. Big changes are afoot and the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) is helping the industry to adapt.
The SSI is an unusual organisation. It has relatively few members – and although its Danish director, Helle Gleie, is keen for it not to be viewed as a small, exclusive club, any new members must also be the right members. Current membership is only around 20, and they tend to be large organisations that represent specific facets of the shipping supply chain: shipowners and charterers; shipbuilders, engineers and service providers; banking; insurance; and classification societies, as well as the environmental NGOs Forum for the Future and WWF.
They include names such as Unilever, Namura, Maersk, Cargill, Rio Tinto, CNCo and Lloyd’s Register, who together, Gleie says, are not only thought leaders but who also “want to drive this. They want to be actively involved.” However, while SSI will never be a mass-participation body, new members from the supply chain are invited to apply: “What we do need at the moment – as this would strengthen our present focus – are thought leaders in ports and ship management, and in shipyards.”
To do what? And why?
Among the SSI’s founding principles set out in its Case for Action, are proposals for the industry to consider its contribution to climate change – and the impact of climate change on the industry, in terms of rising sea levels. Shipping also needs to address issues of energy efficiency and fuel types; corporate transparency; alternative technologies in ship design and construction; shifts in global trade; and global governance and regulation.
This is quite an agenda.
Although the SSI is also a very young organisation – the initiative was launched in 2010 and SSI only became an independent charity in September 2013 – it has already produced a vision for shipping in 2040. “I’m really impressed with what we have achieved so far,” Gleie says, “bringing so many big players together, and having them work collaboratively. Our working groups are not only doing blue sky thinking, but include developing tools that will importantly also benefit small and medium-sized players in the industry, to demonstrate that shipping can contribute to – and thrive in – a sustainable and profitable future.”
Industries can change, and change quickly, if they set their minds to it and invest accordingly. According to the International Maritime Organization: “Shipping is perhaps the most international of all the world’s great industries and one of the most dangerous.”
Another great international industry – also inherently dangerous – is mining. However, because of intense public and investor pressure, it has dramatically improved its safety record over recent decades. In the US coal industry, for instance, the number of fatalities fell by 87 per cent from 1970 to 2007, while production rose by 87 per cent.
Is shipping a modern industry? Or perhaps the question should be: what does a modern shipping industry look like?
Helle Gleie has considerable experience in the industry. She was global head of crew operation at Maersk Supply Service, and also worked for several years for the influential Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO),an NGO whose members in 120 countries control 65 per cent of the world’s tonnage.
“In my opinion, the main challenges facing the industry are the financial models we use when new technologies and innovation need to be tested for real, our lack of flexibility in adapting our ways of working and of thinking, and a failure to understand the benefits of incorporating sustainability into our professional decision-making.”
Sustainability is not a fluffy concept. It’s about ensuring that businesses survive, grow and deliver long-term and sustained profits. And, says Gleie: “Sustainability is not just about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental performance.It is also about the people who work in the industry, and the way it is financed.
“I was born in 1958. At that time we didn’t consider things like coral reefs. Subsequently I have been taught – and have learned – to think differently. But my daughter is 30. She, and people of her generation, often don’t think about being eco, they just do it. The people that the industry needs to attract – and the leaders of the future – also think this way.”
This is not just about attracting new recruits. The industry also needs finance. And although financiers might have harder views than prospective employees, they are still part of a generation that expects companies also to deliver an ethical bottom line.
“The speed with which ‘sustainability’ is hitting the industry is much faster than you might think,” Gleie says. “Once people ‘get it’, it just makes sense – which is why it is important for the industry to pay attention. This is a complex and diverse business. But it is one that – as a rule – lacks an understanding of what sustainability is about. This is a handicap.”
She also believes that regulation is a significant issue. “Regulation is not a negative thing. But it’s important that the industry is able to influence regulation in order to make it progressive. We need to pay attention to the things that are on the horizon – environmental rules, health and safety of mariners, recycling of vessels – and have a holistic view whilst protecting and supporting a healthy maritime community.”
SSI is not a new maritime policeman. Rather it is a thoughtful new friend to the industry.
Source: Lloyd's Register
But that does not mean the future shipping industry will bear any resemblance to when Noah actually was a lad. Big changes are afoot and the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) is helping the industry to adapt.
The SSI is an unusual organisation. It has relatively few members – and although its Danish director, Helle Gleie, is keen for it not to be viewed as a small, exclusive club, any new members must also be the right members. Current membership is only around 20, and they tend to be large organisations that represent specific facets of the shipping supply chain: shipowners and charterers; shipbuilders, engineers and service providers; banking; insurance; and classification societies, as well as the environmental NGOs Forum for the Future and WWF.
They include names such as Unilever, Namura, Maersk, Cargill, Rio Tinto, CNCo and Lloyd’s Register, who together, Gleie says, are not only thought leaders but who also “want to drive this. They want to be actively involved.” However, while SSI will never be a mass-participation body, new members from the supply chain are invited to apply: “What we do need at the moment – as this would strengthen our present focus – are thought leaders in ports and ship management, and in shipyards.”
To do what? And why?
Among the SSI’s founding principles set out in its Case for Action, are proposals for the industry to consider its contribution to climate change – and the impact of climate change on the industry, in terms of rising sea levels. Shipping also needs to address issues of energy efficiency and fuel types; corporate transparency; alternative technologies in ship design and construction; shifts in global trade; and global governance and regulation.
This is quite an agenda.
Although the SSI is also a very young organisation – the initiative was launched in 2010 and SSI only became an independent charity in September 2013 – it has already produced a vision for shipping in 2040. “I’m really impressed with what we have achieved so far,” Gleie says, “bringing so many big players together, and having them work collaboratively. Our working groups are not only doing blue sky thinking, but include developing tools that will importantly also benefit small and medium-sized players in the industry, to demonstrate that shipping can contribute to – and thrive in – a sustainable and profitable future.”
Industries can change, and change quickly, if they set their minds to it and invest accordingly. According to the International Maritime Organization: “Shipping is perhaps the most international of all the world’s great industries and one of the most dangerous.”
Another great international industry – also inherently dangerous – is mining. However, because of intense public and investor pressure, it has dramatically improved its safety record over recent decades. In the US coal industry, for instance, the number of fatalities fell by 87 per cent from 1970 to 2007, while production rose by 87 per cent.
Is shipping a modern industry? Or perhaps the question should be: what does a modern shipping industry look like?
Helle Gleie has considerable experience in the industry. She was global head of crew operation at Maersk Supply Service, and also worked for several years for the influential Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO),an NGO whose members in 120 countries control 65 per cent of the world’s tonnage.
“In my opinion, the main challenges facing the industry are the financial models we use when new technologies and innovation need to be tested for real, our lack of flexibility in adapting our ways of working and of thinking, and a failure to understand the benefits of incorporating sustainability into our professional decision-making.”
Sustainability is not a fluffy concept. It’s about ensuring that businesses survive, grow and deliver long-term and sustained profits. And, says Gleie: “Sustainability is not just about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental performance.It is also about the people who work in the industry, and the way it is financed.
“I was born in 1958. At that time we didn’t consider things like coral reefs. Subsequently I have been taught – and have learned – to think differently. But my daughter is 30. She, and people of her generation, often don’t think about being eco, they just do it. The people that the industry needs to attract – and the leaders of the future – also think this way.”
This is not just about attracting new recruits. The industry also needs finance. And although financiers might have harder views than prospective employees, they are still part of a generation that expects companies also to deliver an ethical bottom line.
“The speed with which ‘sustainability’ is hitting the industry is much faster than you might think,” Gleie says. “Once people ‘get it’, it just makes sense – which is why it is important for the industry to pay attention. This is a complex and diverse business. But it is one that – as a rule – lacks an understanding of what sustainability is about. This is a handicap.”
She also believes that regulation is a significant issue. “Regulation is not a negative thing. But it’s important that the industry is able to influence regulation in order to make it progressive. We need to pay attention to the things that are on the horizon – environmental rules, health and safety of mariners, recycling of vessels – and have a holistic view whilst protecting and supporting a healthy maritime community.”
SSI is not a new maritime policeman. Rather it is a thoughtful new friend to the industry.
Source: Lloyd's Register
Latest News
- For the first time, tianjin Port realized the whole process of dock operati...
- From January to August, piracy incidents in Asia increased by 38%!The situa...
- Quasi-conference TSA closes as role redundant in mega merger world
- Singapore says TPP, born again as CPTPP, is now headed for adoption
- Antwerp posts 5th record year with boxes up 4.3pc to 10 million TEU
- Savannah lifts record 4 million TEU in '17 as it deepens port
