Sustainable shipping for every company through carbon insetting

International shipping carries 90% of our world trade. All this transport causes a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. GoodShipping offers companies worldwide, large and small, the opportunity to make container shipments significantly less polluting.

Cleverly reducing the total CO2 emissions of sea transport. That’s what GoodShipping is rolling up its sleeves for. This is done in a smart way, namely by replacing fossil fuels with sustainable bio-fuels within the same supply chain. The service, also known as ‘carbon insetting‘, enables freight owners and shippers to control their CO2 emissions.

It is the world’s first initiative in this area. The big difference with other sustainability initiatives, according to Dirk Kronemeijer, CEO GoodShipping, is that the program actually changes the fuel mix for shipping. “With our program, we aim to improve the accessibility and affordability of low-carbon fuels for all carriers. This enables us to achieve a CO2 reduction within the industry. Any ocean freight owner can participate, regardless of volume, location, trade routes, and existing contracts with carrier(s) or freight forwarders.”

GoodFuels

The approach is based on the mass balance principle – all CO2 is emitted into the same atmosphere. This means that the ship bunkering the sustainable biofuel does not necessarily carry cargo from the participating companies. It is about meeting the partners’ decarbonisation obligations. GoodFuels is the global market leader in biofuels made from certified waste and residual flows that can be used directly for heavy transport. The fuel meets the highest sustainability standards. This includes used cooking oil and waste from animal fats that cannot be recycled in a higher-quality manner. From source to exhaust, the biodiesel delivers a CO2 reduction of 80-90%. The green fuel also significantly reduces local emissions and contains no sulfur.

Ship to Zero

Recently, 18 companies with a global reach already joined forces to show the industry through GoodShipping that you can save CO2 immediately: Bugaboo, Cocoasource, DHL Global Forwarding, Dille & Kamille, Dopper, Geelen Counterflow, Lenzing, Loods5, Lush, Matsen Chemie, Nine & Co, Regent Ingredients, Samskip, Sipsmith, Tony’s Chocolonely, YOGI Tea, Yumeko, and Zaytoun. They did this under the motto ‘Ship to Zero’. Each and every one of the participants has committed to a specific amount of CO2 reduction with regard to the transport of their products or services. This partnership enabled GoodShipping to complete the first bio bunkering of the container vessel Samskip Innovator. Fossil fuels were replaced by 100% sustainable biofuels for a total of four or five trips from Rotterdam to Hull (UK). This has reduced approximately 4,000 tons of CO2.

Kathrin Brost of DHL Global Forwarding: “We are proud to be part of GoodShipping’s Ship to Zero journey. This is a great, innovative way to show that by joining forces we can make a difference and accelerate the decarbonisation of shipping.” Lean Goedegebuure of Tony’s Chocolonely is equally enthusiastic: “GoodShipping aims to change a norm in an old, conservative industry. That’s exactly what we do. We think it’s an admirable and important mission. The majority of the goods and products we transport are shipped in sea containers, so we see it as our responsibility to do this as sustainably as possible.”

IKEA

Earlier, BMW and IKEA joined GoodShipping through a pilot. “We have a responsibility to do our part to reduce the impact of our sea freight,” said Elisabeth Munck of Rosenschöld, IKEA’s head of sustainability. “By participating, we are sending a signal to our customers and the ocean industry about our commitment to decarbonisation. Only through collaboration can we achieve rapid, necessary change.” IKEA has the ambition to have at least the equivalent of all its containers from Rotterdam transported on biofuel.

Breaking down barriers

Any company can participate in the program, regardless of location, freight routes, contracts with logistics partners, or volumes. This is currently mainly happening in Rotterdam for sea transport and for inland shipping throughout the Netherlands. Tina Trinks, Commercial Manager at GoodShipping: “The Ship to Zero initiative shows that we can make a real impact by removing barriers to collaboration between industries. Our CO2 ‘insetting’ solution is a positive, easy and affordable opportunity for proactive freight owners to reduce emissions from their supply chains to reduce. We invite more companies to take the next step towards CO2-neutral transport now and join us. The approach makes it possible to further unite the various industries together around this important objective.”

This article first appeared in Milieu Magazine (NL) – edition 2, 2022 | Written by Louise van den Broek

Also read: Samskip becomes GoodShipping pioneer – Sustainable biofuels