Shipping leaders collaborate to tackle major issues

The Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) was set up in 2010 by Forum for the Future, a non profit organisation, in conjunction with NGO World Wildlife Fund (WWF). More than 18 global companies, including Maersk Line, Cargill, Lloyd’s Register, DNV, Wärtsilä, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), are working to achieve a sustainable and profitable shipping industry by 2040.

The group represents ship owners, charterers, shipbuilders, engineers and service providers, banking, insurance and classification societies. The aim of the collaboration, which is the first of its kind in the industry, is to organise support across the sector and demonstrate its opportunities and key issues.

In its Case for Action, published in May 2011, the SSI addressed the main challenges facing the shipping industry, including changes in routes and markets, rising fuel costs, oversupply of vessels, restricted investment in new technologies and growing inspection of the industry’s social and environmental performance.

The initiative’s vision is outlined in Vision for 2040 and four initial workstreams – the finance workstream, materials management workstream, energy tech workstream and credible benchmarking workstream – were implemented to address a range of challenges from energy requirements and emissions to material tracking and compliance rating schemes.

At an industry event in Singapore in September 2013, the SSI will launch its practical outputs of these workstreams, report on progress of its 2040 vision and announce future plans for 2013 to 2014.