Under their environmental partnership, German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd and logistics company DB Schenker launched a project to address sulfur oxide emissions in ports.
As explained, in order to reduce the impact of pollution especially in Asian and Latin American ports, a ‘prestigious customer’ switches all its containers shipped by Hapag-Lloyd to low sulfur fuel. This means the customer pays a voluntary surcharge on each of its containers shipped through such ports, started by middle of the year 2017.
Such surcharge is fully dedicated by Hapag-Lloyd to low sulfur fuel purchase which the carrier commits to and to verify its implementation and port combustion by an external auditor. The customer receives a factual statement on the fuel change for all its containers while DB Schenker supervises the transaction.
The move goes beyond current regulation: While some regions in the world provide for 0.1% sulfur content not to be exceeded when at berth, many ports still do not have any such regulations and fuel is permitted to be burnt with sulfur contents of up to 3.5% to run vessel facilities during port stays for loading and discharge.
“We are proud to enter with such prestigious companies in a ground-breaking health and environmental initiative”, says project initiator Andrea Dorothea Schoen, Carbon Controller and head of DB Schenker’s climate protection program.
