GREEN SHIPPING & ENERGY EFFICIENCY

A ship is a trading tool that must be flexible, efficient and commercial. In order for this tool to be tradable, it must satisfy International Regulations. In the past, safety was the flavor of the day but today Greenery is probably the key success factor for the shipping company and the stakeholders in todays crucial times of overcapacity. Public perception in the past used to see shipping as Black but this is not true by fact. On the contrary, International Shipping delivers 90% of world trade in a highly energy efficient manner, being by far the most energy efficient means of transport. It is true that in shipping mode of transportation there is in average the least external cost of pollution on a per ton basis in comparison to other means such as truck, railway or plane transportation.

While ships are today universally recognized as the most fuel-efficient mode of bulk transportation, there is potential for further improvements in energy efficiency, mainly through the use of already existing technologies such as more efficient engines and propulsion systems, improved hull designs and larger ships. In other words, improvement can be made through technical- and design-based measures that can achieve noteworthy reductions in fuel consumption and resulting CO2 emissions on a capacity basis (tone*mile).

IMO MEASURES The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has established certain measures for controlling energy efficiency in shipping and these are: Energy Efficient Design Index (EEDI) Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) Market Based Measures (MBM)

ENERGY EFFICIENCY DESIGN INDEX (EEDI) The Energy Efficiency Design Index is the product of a broad church united around a single objective the reduction of GHG emissions from ships. According to EEDI it can be proved firstly that as far as the capacity of the ship is increasing, the EEDI decreases which means that it is more energy efficient to transport goods or energy in bigger vessels and this is because:

IMOs restriction is the attained EEDI to be below the reference line. Moreover, IMOs ambition for shipping energy efficiency is to lower EEDI from 27 in 2013 to 19 in 2025 as it is illustrated by the graph below:

WHY TO BE GREEN AND ENERGY EFFICIENT IN SHIPPING BUSINESS? The commercial & ecological drivers and trends: Energy demand will increase by almost 50% prior to 2030 followed by an increase in energy prices.

Energy efficiency is an integral part of the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by shipping. Energy efficiency is an implicit legal requirement according to MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships) The Reduction of fuel consumption leads to the reduction of operating costs which is probably the most important factor for the welfare of a shipping company of which the major operating costs come from fuel. Especially in the contemporary business reality there is a critical issue about cost-cutting with the sky-rocketing fuel prices and the decreasing freight rates. Energy efficiency and Think Green tactics is an explicit customer & business partner requirement that will assist in a sustainable competitive advantage for shipping companies.