»Green, green, green – all my clothes are green«, a popular German nursery rhyme tells us. As far as my son[ds_preview], aged three and a half years, is concerned, this colour represents the latest fashion and he hardly accepts to wear any other – I hope he does not intend to become a huntsman, though. Parallel to nursery and catwalk, economy has agreed to green having become absolutely and increasingly in vogue since many years, and so the trend has inevitably seized shipping, too. »Green Shipping« will probably be the predominant saying at this year’s maritime trade fair SMM. And HANSA has responded to this: Take improved ship propulsion, the wave equalizing duct, air lubrication, LNG as fuel or optimized voyage planning – wherever you look in this issue, you will find lots of green content.
The reasons for going green are quite obvious: In many cases eco-friendly investments pay off economically. With bunker costs at record highs, every gain in efficiency is much sought-after. Further, thinking and acting in a green way has become widely accepted under a sustainability point of view. So, end customers and therefore also producers, retailers, freight forwarders and charterers demand a green supply chain. Finally, politics has put the topic on the agenda and calls for shipping – like aviation or manufacturing – to play its part.
The issues shipowners have to deal with at present are multifaceted: ECAs, EEDI, ballast water treatment (BWT) or maybe even a carbon emissions trading scheme. Meanwhile lit-
tle is done in many areas, most of all merchant shipping, although days are numbered concerning the sulphur content being reduced to 0,1 % within European ECAs but also as for the Ballast Water Convention coming into force.
Shipowners call for extension of time now. Their political addresses state that firstly they were occupied solving the harsh crisis in shipping which left them no money for refits and secondly a supposed lack of marketable solutions. Though there is actually some truth in the first statement, the second, however, comes close to a thought-terminating cliché. Even in the field of much debated scrubbers both wet and dry cleaning procedures have been tested and respective products are offered already.
LNG as ship fuel is also fast expanding. Shortly »Stavangerfjord« – carrying 1,500 passengers and 600 cars – will be launched being the first single LNG engine vessel of her class. Hence, this is no niche segment limited to Norwegian coastal ferries and offshore workboats. A set of approvals in principle granted by classification societies for container vessels in the category of 9,000–14,000 TEU underline this evolution. Also, Aida Cruises’ latest order of cruise vessels with dual fuel LNG engines and the fact that LNG-fueled ferry »Viking Grace« is to be handed over soon give proof of this.
Bunker used to be affordable for a long time and green regulation was easy going. In spite of investing in quality from an ecological or efficiency-oriented perspective, most shipowners ordered sheer mass and size. Considering the past boom times they could have established a unique feature with maybe slightly more expensive green ships then, leaving competitors behind. Now, most of them lack the necessary funds to order truly seminal new vessels or to upgrade their current fleet.
Shipowners still are quite able to calculate, of course. So, technology promising profits in terms of efficiency is by all means taken into account. As for scrubbers and BWT systems which both show no benefits in efficiency and price advantage there is much hope for extension time being granted by politics. This is a weak and predictable reasoning aiming at costs while social responsibility is blanked out.
Maybe thinking about our future will do the trick, all the more if we think about our children’s future – they love to have it green!
Nikos Späth
