Roadmap To Guide Shipping Through Its Sustainability Journey

The Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) announces the launch of the updated Roadmap to sustainable shipping industry, a resource for stakeholders across the shipping value chain to navigate the major, pressing sustainability challenges facing the industry.

There is a clear need to reshape the way shipping operates in the face of current and future challenges: from a changing climate and the need for rapid decarbonisation by 2050; to increased scrutiny and pressure from investors, lenders and other financial stakeholders to improve sustainability performance and reporting; to the labour and human rights risks faced by seafarers worldwide, and highlighted by the ongoing crew change crisis.

Consisting of six vision areas – Oceans, Communities, People, Transparency, Finance, and Energy – each aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and with its own set of objectives and interrelated milestones, the Roadmap sets out opportunities for positive impact across and beyond the shipping value chain.

Image Credits: sustainableshipping.org

Companies and organisations can use the Roadmap’s 60 milestones as indicators against which they report and track progress of their respective sustainability journeys.

Developed by members of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative with review and feedback from industry, the Roadmap deepens our individual and collective understanding of the barriers and opportunities, creating a common language and purpose for a sustainable, successful shipping industry.

Initially launched in 2016, the Roadmap was updated in 2020 to reflect the continuous changes in the maritime landscape and ensure its ongoing relevance. The updated Roadmap is a call to action, increasing ambition to respond to the global challenges and trends expected to affect the industry in the coming decades.

SSI Executive Director Andrew Stephens said: “The Roadmap to a sustainable shipping industry shows us what sustainable shipping looks like, highlighting how we as an industry can play our part in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. From ocean governance; to port and coastal communities; seafarers and shipping workers; transparency and accountability; financial solutions to enable maritime innovation; to the radical decarbonisation of shipping – all of these elements are key in our collective journey to a sustainable and successful maritime industry.

The Roadmap is a tool for the industry to rally around and against which we can hold ourselves accountable. We hope all stakeholders engaged across the shipping value chain, will find the Roadmap useful and reflect on the pathways that we can individually and collectively contribute to, navigating to sustainable shipping in the months, years, and decades to come.”

Quotes from SSI member representatives:

Jacob Sterling, Head of Technical Innovation, A.P. Moller Maersk: “At Maersk we believe in taking responsibility through collective action when it comes to pursuing solutions to contribute to the SDGs. We’re committed to maximising the positive, and mitigating the negative impacts across our operations – ranging from the full decarbonisation of our shipping operations to improving ship recycling.

The Roadmap to a sustainable shipping industry provides a unique and ambitious overview of the milestones and priorities for us and our peers across the maritime sector, driving shipping’s sustainability journey in the decades to come.”

Oriana Brine, Senior Strategist, Forum for the Future: “The unprecedented system shock to the shipping industry this year underlines the urgent need for fundamental change to create a more resilient, future-fit sector that contributes to a regenerative and just society. We welcome this Roadmap as a holistic tool to drive this transformation, laying out the actions required for stakeholders in the shipping value chain to help achieve the UN’s SDGs, and offering clear milestones against which to track the industry’s progress towards these goals.”

Katharine Palmer, Global Head of Sustainability, Lloyd’s Register: “We’re proud to support SSI with updating its sustainability roadmap in line with recent developments in maritime, ensuring its relevance as we move towards to a zero-carbon future. The roadmap is an important tool for both the shipping industry and individual organisations, setting out milestones that cover all aspects of social, environmental and economic sustainability, helping businesses develop their own journeys: focusing on where they can contribute positively. The SSI roadmap also translates the UN’s SDGs into what sustainability means for shipping.”

Sebastien Landerretche, Head of Freight Platform, Louis Dreyfus Company: “As a member of SSI, Louis Dreyfus Company is very pleased to see the launch of the updated Roadmap to a sustainable shipping industry. We believe this will be a key resource and guide, for us and for other industry participants and stakeholders, as we work together toward our common goal to reduce shipping-related emissions and protect human rights.”

Robert Haggquist, Charterer, South32: “At South32, working with communities is a core part of who we are and what we do. We believe that by working in partnership with our communities we can understand our environmental impact and only by working together can we achieve long-term social, environmental and economic outcomes. It’s this strong foundation between industry stakeholders and communities that is vital, indeed essential, to achieve the milestones set out in the Roadmap.

We are proud to contribute to this Roadmap, which sets out the milestones that the maritime sector must achieve across six vision areas in the decades to come, helping us extend our emphasis on local and indigenous communities beyond land-based supply chains and into our shipping operations.”

Simon Bennett, General Manager – Sustainable Development, The China Navigation Company: “The China Navigation Company is committed to making the shipping value chain sustainable. As founding members of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, we’ve worked alongside industry leaders for the past ten years, united by a common goal of collective action and transparency to not only contribute to, but also assist a sustainable and successful maritime sector to thrive.

Stakeholders across and beyond the physical and economic lifecycle of ships must work to coalesce and align on sustainable solutions to help us achieve the milestones featured in this latest iteration of our Roadmap (and as early as possible). We must all act now, and act together, to tackle the diverse challenges facing the sector in the coming decades and contribute to progressing the global sustainability agenda.”

Mark Lutes, Senior Advisor, Global Climate Policy, WWF Global Climate and Energy Practice: “The decarbonisation of the shipping industry is essential to ensure the world achieves the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5˚C. While the level of climate ambition needed from the sector has not yet materialised, there are voices in the sector, like the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, actively calling for comprehensive climate action on several fronts. It gives hope that the shipping sector will, sooner rather than later, move decisively to decarbonize by 2050 as climate scientists have told us we must.”

Press Release

Source: Maritime Shipping News