Major container carriers, shippers launch greenhouse gas initiative
San Francisco, Calif.-based Business for Social Responsibility, a non-profit organization, and a group of major container carriers, retailers and manufacturers, have announced an environmental survey to assess the
impact of container shipping.
The survey is designed to enable manufacturers and retailers to incorporate environmental criteria into their business relationships with ocean freight carriers, and calculate their greenhouse gas emissions caused by ocean transportation.
The “Clean Cargo Environmental Performance Survey” of Business for Social Responsibility was developed by a group of major shipping lines representing 33 percent of containerized cargo carriers, and 20 percent of the top 50
U.S. importers of containerized cargo by volume, the non-profit organization said.
“The aim of the survey is to provide shippers and carriers with a common reporting tool to begin examining the overall environmental impacts associated with ocean transportation,” said David Monsma, director of Business for Social Responsibility.
The survey’s questionnaire defines a set of environmental indicators and reporting standards under which shippers ask ocean carriers to provide information on their vessels’ emissions. It also includes a set of metrics to help companies measure environmental impacts, such as the emission of CO2, SOx and NOx gases in grams per TEU-kilometer.
The survey development has been spearheaded by a “clean cargo group” that includes: Chiquita Brands, Inc. & Great White Fleet, Ltd.; Hapag-Lloyd Container Line; The Hewlett Packard Co.; The Home Depot, Inc.; Ikea; “K” Line; L.L. Bean, Inc.; Maersk Sealand; Mattel, Inc.; New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.; Nike, Inc.; NYK Line; P&O Nedlloyd; and Teragren LLC.
Other participating companies were: APL Ltd.; Atlantic Container Line; Del Monte; Evergreen Marine Corp.; Mitsui/MOL; OOCL; Starbucks Coffee Co.; Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.; and Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
Transportation ranks alongside electricity generation and manufacturing as one of the three most significant sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. As global trade increases, greenhouse gas emissions from ocean vessels are also expected to rise, Business for Social Responsibility said.
The non-profit organization is encouraging companies to use the environmental performance survey in their relationships as shippers and carriers. The survey is posted at http://www.bsr.org/BSRResources/Environment/EnvResources.cfm#EPS .