Environmental regulations are here, and they are not going anywhere. In the next 10 years, there are more regulations coming one after the other to clean the air and to protect marine life. While no one wants to cause any harm for the environment, it is increasingly difficult for the industry to meet regulatory demands.
At Green Ship Technology North America, we spoke to attendees – vendors and industry representatives –, who happily shared their views on sustainability in the shipping sector.
Watch the video or read the replies below.
Andre Spicher, Manager of Marketing & Application, WinGD
“I think that shipowners, especially, should be more open. Let’s say not only to try to comply with legislations but do a bit more than the minimum and try to take advantage of it to have a competitive advantage, for instance, over other shipowners. Besides there are world-wide legislations from the IMO and there are also local legislations like in Australia where we know there is a company promoting EVDI (Existing Vessel Design Index) besides the Energy Efficiency Index.
So, shipowners should really look at optimising their existing fleet and just to do a bit more than what’s necessary.”
Steve Candito, CEO, Ecochlor
“I think the best thing would be moving a little bit faster. I think a lot of the shipowners do want to do the right thing for the environment and sustainability, but they tend to delay a little longer than maybe they should. It’s just moving a little bit quicker.”
Mark Riggio, Senior Market Manager, Hyde Marine
“The shipping industry needs to focus on value creation in sustainability and not look at sustainability as a regulatorily driven aspect of their business. I’d like to see shipping implement a higher degree of protection of the environment, particularly through the product lines that we sell. Things like ballast water treatment systems, things like scrubbers and things such as sewage treatment plans, affluent discharge treatment equipment. These are the things that I think the shipping industry needs to be more aware of their impact to the environment.”
John Dooley, President, Choice Ballast Solutions
“Well, we work in the ballast water sector so we would like to see the industry embrace the sustainability of ballast water treatment systems. That would be that the market – the owners – would use those systems to provide feedback to all the stakeholders about the performance of those systems.”
Matt Hughes, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, EnviroCleanse
“So, I’ve had a lot of conversations with customers – shipowners – where it’s almost a ‘head-in-the-sand’ deniability scenario. I guess they don’t want to accept the fact that these regulations are not coming, but they’re here. So, I’d like to see more acceptance in what’s going on because the more our customers know about our technology, the easier it is to integrate them into their vessels. The less they know, the more education, and therefore the more difficult it is for them to understand what the impact is to their fleet.”
Nicole Pirot, Assistant Manager of Environmental Compliance, Excelerate Energy
“In terms of sustainability, I would think more control, more monitoring, so you’ll be able to decide precisely what you can do with your vessel. So more data is something that is needed to be able to decide on where to go in sustainability.”
Kathy Metcalf, President and CEO, Chamber of Shipping of America
“That’s a real tough question because right now we’re struggling with compliance. I think the willingness to look forward to the future past 2050.”
Carleen Lyden-Kluss, Co-Founder and Executive Director, NAMEPA
“What I’d like to see the industry do more is to look at net environmental impacts. I’ll give you ethanol as an example. The production of ethanol really had a negative environmental impact rather than the positive it was designed to do. As we start to implement these technologies, and new fuels, and new configurations, I think we need to look at the net environmental impact. Is it really hurting or helping?
Something that was just incredible this morning [at Green Ship Technology North America] is Dr Vis from Viswa Labs advocate for HFO, heavy fuel oil, with the use of scrubbers. So, then you combine that two panels later, talking about decarbonisation. Where else are you going to have those two discussions within the same form?”
