The name of the game today is making efficiencies — but in a sustainable way.

The $1bn question

This article is part of a series written by people across shipping in response to this question about how to deploy a hypothetical TradeWinds Sustainable Shipping Fund:

How, where and why would you invest $1bn for the best return in sustainable shipping, as the industry grapples with the need to cut carbon emissions, improve efficiency and keep cargoes moving in a world facing multiple economic and political challenges? The investment will be made now and ideally held for the next seven years to the end of the decade. As an added bonus, give one policy or regulation you would like to implement from 1 January 2023 to benefit shipping?

I would start with the vessels since there are 62,000 of them in the world. I would begin by working out every possible way of making that fleet more efficient before spending the money.

Every shipowner will claim that their ships are the most efficient, but the reality is we need to invest and come up with a lot of new technology to make improvements. These are technical questions and, of course, it is different for every vessel. It depends on where and how your ship trades.

So, I would ensure I spent this money sensibly. Because if you are not, then you are simply contributing to waste.

These are the times when we need to come together. It is not about finding the right vessel, making 10 of them and then selling them for double the price. It is about these small things, bringing them all together and finding out that you have something more valuable than you thought — from sails for vessels to other new innovations.

These efficiencies would offer significant benefits, both straight away and in the future. It is too early to go for large-scale, zero-emission fuels because of the lack of sustainable energy to produce them.

We have enough regulations already, but one that I would bring in would be a ban on individual countries implementing rules for shipping. This is a global business. It needs to have global regulations.