New study highlights the decarbonising power of digitalisation

This is the message that comes across loud and clear in a new study published by Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN), a neutral, not for profit consortium.

GSBN commissioned SIA Partners to implement the study entitled, Impact of Digitalization in Driving Decarbonization in Shipping. At its heart the study addresses the positive impact of digitalised documentation processes including the adoption of electronic Bills of Lading (EbL) and the use of paperless solutions during the cargo release process.

The study contends that the absence of a universally adopted digital platform creates “interoperability challenges, complicating efforts to reduce carbon emissions.” And suggests that against this backdrop, GSBN’s comprehensive data infrastructure emerges as a good candidate to support interoperability and to generally facilitate the transition to a digital ecosystem.

Study highlights include:

– As carriers pledge to adopt eBLs by 2030, the transition of the estimated 16 million paper bills issued annually could reduce CO2e emissions by up to 107,000 tonnes.

– The potential CO2e reduction per electronic bill of lading is between 2.1 and 6.8kg and between 9.8 and 1.4 kg for an electronic delivery order.

– In 2023, over 120,000 eBLs and more than one million shipments using GSBN’s Cargo Release solution contributed to an estimated CO2e reduction of up to 14,972 tonnes.

The study concludes with actionable recommendations for the industry, emphasising the need for broad-based digital adoption, enhanced data integrity and interoperability, as well as the removal of legal barriers “to accelerate towards a greener future for global shipping.”

It is further interesting to note that the study proposes comprehensive models based on live cases to quantify the opportunities that digitalised documentation processes represent. Practically speaking, for example, it looks at a number of the leading container lines and scales up, based on specific scenarios, the potential impact of the adoption of eBLs – as per Figure 1.

The study Impact of Digitalization in Driving Decarbonization in Shipping can be downloaded free of charge from the GSBN website.