Paint and coating company AkzoNobel and container shipping company Maersk Line have partnered to reduce carbon emissions per container shipped by 10 percent.
The companies say the partnership will also increase transparency on supply chain best practices and integrate sustainability into the customer-supplier relationship as a decision-making factor.
Both companies have recently announced other initiatives to improve the environmental management of their own businesses as well as that of the maritime industry as a whole.
Last week AkzoNobel said ship owners and operators have saved $3 billion of fuel and 32 million tons of CO2 over the past two decades by using its biocide-free marine coatings.
And earlier this week the Dutch multinational committed to using 100 percent renewable energy and being carbon neutral by 2050.
AkzoNobel’s share of renewable energy currently stands at 40 percent, with almost half of its sites around the world having improved their energy footprint in 2016, the company says. Offering products and services that help its customers reduce their energy use and carbon footprint will also play a part in the company’s carbon neutrality plant.
The paint and coatings company is also a member of the BICEPS Network, which two years ago launched a rating system to help shippers choose more sustainable ocean freight carriers.
The BICEPS Network — it stands for Boosting Initiatives for Collaborative Emission-reduction with the Power of Shippers — is a joint initiative of AB InBev, AkzoNobel, DSM, FrieslandCampina and Huntsman.
The five companies committed to use the new BICEPS Rating System in their global procurement processes of ocean freight container carriers. The Rating System ranks the carriers from A to F based on their scores from a questionnaire that covers performance in five areas including emission scores and targets.
AkzoNobel and Maersk are also members of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, a global coalition taking steps to make the sector more environmentally sustainable.
Earlier this month Maersk, in partnership with Shell, Norsepower and the Energy Technologies Institute, announced a project that could help major corporations reducing shipping fuel costs and emissions by using wind-powered technology on a product tanker vessel.
The project, which will begin in 2018, will be the first installation of wind propulsion technology on a product tanker vessel, the companies say. The technology will undergo testing and data analysis at sea until the end of 2019.
Also this month the container shipping company ordered 100 refrigerated containers that use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant.
Because the system pulls CO2 from the air, there is no potential for refrigerant leaks — and the related global warming impacts — as there is with traditional systems. Additionally, the natural refrigerant is a non-ozone depleting gas with a global warming potential (GWP) of one.
Maersk says the new refrigerant system will help it meet its environmental targets and comply with European Union rules limiting emissions from fluorinated gases, which are commonly used in refrigeration systems.
