Tag: green practices

Huntington Ingalls Industries, HHI's subsidiary, has been recognized for Environmental Stewardship

MPA Singapore's Green Ship Programme Reaches New Milestone with Addition of 53 Ships

 Port employees around the world enthusiastically contributed their time and effort to a joint environmental initiative of a week-long campaign which focused on three main themes: reuse and recycle, climate change and the community.This initiative launched by marine terminal operators DP World, Hutchison Port Holdings Limited (HPH), APM Terminals, PSA International and Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG)  and joined by the Port of Rotterdam Authority (PRA).The campaign identified local partners in the effort to improve the environment, while creating and upgrading local green spaces, launching educational programmes and community engagement.Employees across the world took part in a wide range of events from a cycling marathon, public square beautification and tree planting in Sokhna, Egypt and Karachi, Pakistan, alongside beach clean-up drives in Chennai, India, a ‘Green Race’ in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the recycling of old drums and tires into planter pots in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.HPH business units around the world organised a wide variety of GO GREEN activities with a particular focus on tree planting. Many of the events were designed to benefit the local communities in which HPH operates in a number of ways. For example, some of the tree-planting activities were held in conjunction with local schools where HPH organised ...

 Maersk Line announced that both Philips and Maersk Line commit to cut 20% for every Philips container moved confirming their mutual values and ambitions for achieving sustainable growth in a 5-year Carbon Pact.Focus on progress and innovation Philips understands that sustainable development is one of the most challenging issues facing the world. Therefore, Philips is engaging suppliers to create awareness of sustainability topics and encourage them to increase environmental performance. “Philips believes the transition from a linear to a circular economy is an essential boundary condition to create a sustainable world. It is a driver of innovation in the areas of materials, components, product re-use, and not unimportantly logistics. Therefore, continued focus on reducing our environmental impact from logistics is required.” says Arjan de Jongste, Senior Vice President Procurement Indirect Materials & Services at Royal Philips.With this in mind, and Philips’ mission to create a more sustainable world through innovation, the two parties have signed a five-year strategic Carbon Pact. The agreement integrates both companies’ longstanding commitments to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions within their value chain by 2020. The CO2 reductions are to be achieved over a 5-year time frame between 2016 and 2020 and will focus closely on reducing emissions ...

 Korean Register  announced that it has been selected as the very first recipient of the new ‘K-Award’ launched at the KORMARINE Conference 2015 in Korea.The KORMARINE Conference is part of KORMARINE, one of the world’s largest marine trade exhibitions. The ‘K-Award’ has been established expressly to honour and recognize organizations or individuals for their achievements in the world’s shipping and shipbuilding industries.Under the theme ‘Green Technology, Green Opportunity’, the conference created an opportunity to raise awareness of eco-friendly technology by focusing on energy and environmental matters in the shipbuilding and marine industry.KR was recognized for its contribution to the protection of world’s oceanic environment and the development of green ship technology. KR is the first Asian classification society to be accepted by the US Coast Guard as an Independent Laboratory (IL) to undertake tests, inspections, and evaluations for Ballast Water Management Systems. In addition, the classification society opened the world’s first Green Ship Equipment Test Certification Center in May, 2015. The centre is an international green-ship hub, developing, testing and evaluating core green-ship technology and technical services.Commenting on the award, Dr. B. S. Park, Chairman and CEO of KR said:“We are honoured and delighted to receive the ‘K Award’. It ...

 The overwhelming message from the two day GreenPort Congress was that, while there is increasing awareness of social, economic and environmental sustainability, port stakeholders must work together to enhance communication to help overcome issues, raise awareness and reduce risk, whilst also avoiding crises.Hosted by Copenhagen Malmo Port (CMP), nearly 220 maritime port authorities, terminal operators, NGOs, EC representatives, associations and suppliers came together in Copenhagen from 7-9 October 2015. Johan Röstin, CEO of CMP, opened the conference with an enlightening presentation about the scope of environmental undertakings on many fronts - water, noise and soil pollution - including a torpedo to clean up oil–polluted water, and it is working with universities to measure the port's impact on the seabed. Rostin commented though that "making sure that people think 'environment' can be a challenge with some external stakeholders”.The programme contained a mix of plenary sessions and working groups and, in the first session, Patrick Verhoeven, secretary general of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), introduced a broad session discussing the impact of recently introduced sulphur regulations and what has been learned both by regulators and industry operators. He noted that there is room for a forum bringing together both ports and shipping ...

 The Port of Los Angeles has entered a long-term agreement with Hecate Energy Harborside LLC to build, operate, and maintain photovoltaic (PV) solar power systems (PV Systems) that will generate electricity at multiple site locations within the Port. The PV Systems will feed clean energy to the utility grid operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)."This solar project is a perfect example of our city departments doing their part to adopt my Sustainable City plan," said Mayor Eric Garcetti. "Sustainability must be a value shared across departments, industries, and neighborhoods, and I'm very proud to see the Port of Los Angeles investing in the Harbor Area's sustained health with renewable power sources." The agreement supports the Port’s larger goals under the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) to expand the use of clean energy and related infrastructure while continuing to improve air quality throughout Southern California. Key initiatives to date include a 1 megawatt (MW) PV System atop the Port’s World Cruise Center.“To truly eliminate air pollution, the process for generating energy must be as clean as the energy itself,” said Port Executive Director Gene Seroka. “These new solar projects represent the kind of ...

 United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) hosted an event in Hamburg this week to celebrate one of the world’s most environmentally friendly ultra-large container vessels M.V. Al Muraykh, delivered in August 2015, with its banking partners. The event was held to acknowledge UASC’s financing partners who have collectively contributed to backing UASC’s newbuilding program, comprising eleven 15,000teu vessels and six 18,800teu vessels.Members of UASC’s Board of Directors and Executive Management, as well as more than 60 representatives from leading banks and financial institutions from around the world participated in the day-long event that included a guided tour on-board the 18,800teu M.V. Al Muraykh, while on its maiden voyage in North Europe.Speaking at the event, Basil Al-Zaid, Chief Financial Officer of UASC, said: “In a capital intensive industry like container shipping, it is critical to invest in the most efficient assets to keep pace with market growth and maintain competitive unit costs. With our trusted partners, UASC has achieved a series of milestones including our current newbuilding program, considered one of the industry’s largest and most technologically advanced”.“In recent years, efficiency has become an increasingly important differentiator in achieving a solid financial performance, whether it stems from improving vessel design through our ...

 Maritime transport is at a critical juncture as the global community commits to the new Sustainable Development Goals and gears up for a new international climate policy agreement. The UNCTAD Review of Maritime Transport 2015 highlights the role of freight transport, including maritime transport, in addressing the global sustainability and resilience agenda.With more than 80 per cent of world merchandise trade by volume being carried by sea, maritime transport remains the backbone of international trade and globalization, the report says. Equally, the sector is a key enabling factor for other sectors and economic activities. The sector has a new opportunity both to assert its strategic importance as an economic activity – one that creates jobs and revenue, enables trade, supports supply chains and links communities – and to underscore its potential to generate value in terms of social equity, conserving resources and protecting the environment. For the sector to take up this role effectively, however, sustainability and resilience criteria need to be integrated into transport development plans at the early stages of planning, decision-making and investment. Removal of the physical and non-physical barriers that drive up costs and undermine trade is essential to the sustainability of freight transport systems including maritime transport. Developing countries ...

 Sometimes less speed can be king, too. Wärtsilä's Busser project introduces Ultra Slow Steaming. Yeah, that's right. Ultra Slow.Moving goods from point A to point B as fast as you possibly can is the drill in today's logistics. However, out at sea, a rather contradictory method has been in use for some years now. In slow steaming, you deliberately slow down the speed of a vessel in order to lower costs by reducing fuel consumption. Even in a weak freight market, this approach allows you to stay profitable, by absorbing excess tonnage and cutting down on fuel consumption and bunker bills as you slowly steam along.Teus van Beek, General Manager for Wärtsilä’s Market Development & Innovation, says that recent trends in shipping point towards slower, larger and simpler operations. And as ships take longer to reach their eventual ports, a big crew on the payroll translates to higher labour costs. According to Wärtsilä, moving towards unmanned ships could well be the way of the future – but only under certain circumstances.“Decreasing crew cost by reducing headcount only makes sense in a situation where speed – time used to make the voyage – is not a factor, meaning that the speed ...