The industry and the non-profit the Sustainable Shipping Initiative announced the launch of the Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative’s (SRTI) online platform for sharing information on ship recycling. The platform comes nine months after key shipping industry actors, first announced their effort to make responsible ship recycling the norm.
Transparency is crucial for the shipping industry as it creates fair competition among shipowners and the launch of the new platform aims to increase responsible ship recycling practices.
In 2017, 835 ships were recycled out of a world fleet of 50,000. Despite the known risks associated with ship recycling there is no active global regulation currently, resulting in a wide range of approaches.
With transparency on shipping companies’ ship recycling policies and practices, it becomes possible for the industry’s stakeholders, including shippers, lenders, investors and insurers to make informed decisions.
The importance of such decisions is increasing with the growing expectation for companies to take responsibility for their value chain sustainability. Responsible ship recycling is good for brand value, protecting reputation and good for business, and is key to being recognised as a responsible and sustainable shipping industry.
The SRTI is neither a standard nor a rating tool. It provides an online platform that shipping companies can use to disclose relevant information on ship recycling. The information provided reveal its own story and is readily available to the industry’s stakeholders, as well as the broader public. The website creates an onus for stakeholders to use the SRTI for both more informed decision-making, as well as to push for greater transparency.
The SRTI is introduced by the Sustainable Shipping Initiative and brings together leading shipowners, investors, banks, insurers, cargo owners and other key stakeholders from across the maritime industry. Its founding signatories include shipowners The China Navigation Company, Hapag-Lloyd AG, A.P. Moeller-Maersk, NORDEN, Stolt Tankers and Wallenius Wilhelmsen, financial stakeholders GES, Nykredit and Standard Chartered Bank, classification society Lloyd’s Register, and sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future.
The SRTI is an opportunity for shipowners, cargo owners, investors and others to collectively demand transparency and through that better standards. We think that the industry can lead by working across the supply chain to change itself and it is great to be shaping this positive example of that.
SSI Co-Chair Stephanie Draper stated in the platform’s announcement.
