Germany: Hapag-Lloyd Publishes Environmental and Sustainability Brochure

40 examples of active environmental protection / Main objective to reduce CO2 emissions / Statutory regulations often fulfilled voluntarily in advance / Pioneer in the shipping industry

Hapag-Lloyd has published its new sustainability brochure under the title “Driven by Responsibility”. It not only describes numerous environmental activities carried out by the container liner shipping company on land and at sea, but also provides interesting background information on CO2 emissions from shipping, the right way to deal with ballast water or the interaction between slow steaming and De-Rating, for which Hapag-Lloyd blazed a trail in the shipping industry. By combining both approaches (slow steaming and De-Rating), Hapag-Lloyd ships use even less fuel. The first cuts a ship’s CO2 emissions significantly, while technical De-Rating ensures additionally cleaner combustion and lower NOx emissions.

“Cutting CO2 emissions has been one of our most pressing and high-priority environmental targets for many years and one in which we can point to a number of successes,” says Michael Behrendt, Chairman of the Executive Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG. “To achieve this goal we have very often led the way technically and operationally in our industry and invested in sustainable technology and research.”

Thanks to intelligent controls, an average Hapag-Lloyd reefer now uses approximately 30% less energy than just eight years ago, which also reduces CO2 emissions substantially. For pre-carriage and on-carriage Hapag-Lloyd also gives preferential treatment to environmental means of transport such as inland waterways or rail. Most recently Hapag-Lloyd set new standards in transparency with its new online emissions calculator EcoCalc. On the website customers can view emissions of CO2 as well as SOx, NOx and particulate matter for every consignment worldwide.

The attractively illustrated brochure also shows measures that Hapag-Lloyd has adopted voluntarily, before they are required by law. They include the EEDI (Energy Efficiency Design Index) certificates, which give the energy efficiency and therefore the CO2 emissions of a vessel in comparison with the existing global fleet for all newbuilds from 2013. Hapag-Lloyd obtained the first EEDI certificate worldwide for the “Vienna Express” back in 2010. The 8,750 TEU container ship has CO2 emissions that are 25% below the average for the active global fleet in this class.

Other topics covered by the “Driven by Responsibility” brochure are low-sulphur fuels, onshore power supply (“cold ironing”), Inventories of Hazardous Materials (IHM), innovative ship trimming programmes and weather navigation by satellite.

[mappress]

World Maritime News Staff, February 24, 2012; Image: Hapag-Lloyd