London-based mining company Anglo American announced it has offset the carbon emissions for an ocean freight voyage from South Africa to Europe, using RightShip’s carbon accounting tool and offset credits purchased from South Pole.
Anglo American, transporting large volumes of bulk commodity products, has committed to sustainable mining plan, setting a goal for a 30% reduction in net GHG emissions by 2030.
RightShip’s GHG Rating compares a ship’s theoretical CO2 emissions with other vessels of a similar size and type, both newbuilds and existing ships, and gives each ship a rating on an A-G scale, with ‘A’ indicating the most efficient vessels and ‘G’ the least.
As such, the GHG Rating helps owners and operators to make more sustainable choices in their vessel selection – which along with reducing emissions also makes good economic sense, as the less fuel a vessel burns the cheaper it is to run.
For this particular journey, a ship operator bid for the iron ore cargo; and as part of the charter party agreement, offered to offset the emissions for the entire journey.
The transit equates to 5,880 tCO2e – including the ballast leg and the laden voyage – from Saldanah Bay in South Africa to Europe, and is understood to be the first entirely carbon offset bulk journey.
As the calls from industry grow louder for dramatic action to reduce carbon emissions, more and more companies are seeing the need to account for the carbon emissions along their supply chains. RightShip’s carbon accounting tool calculates the carbon emissions based on the specific characteristics of the journey in question – the route, vessel particulars, cargo information, the fuel refining and consumption, and the loaded and ballast legs. The results can then be used to set targets, inform sustainable decision-making and, as in this case, allow companies to offset the emissions from their shipping activities,
…said Kris Fumberger, Sustainability Manager at RightShip.
The carbon credits purchased to offset this journey will support South Pole’s Gunung Salak Geothermal Energy project in Indonesia.
The project has helped to upgrade the capacity of a geothermal plant, enabling it to generate more clean electricity from the same source of geothermal steam thanks to modified turbines and steam gas ejectors.
As a result, the Gunung Salak project mitigates approximately 113,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions and supplies over 213,000 MWh of clean energy to the local grid each year.
