Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 66
FUTURE-PROOFING
THE FLEET
Don’t talk about it; just do it. It is a general principle at Oldendorff
that the company prefers to just get on with doing things rather
than talking about them.
Some companies may nail their
environmental colours to the mast
for all to see, but Oldendorff has just
been quietly getting on with the job
of future-proofing its fleet.
While the company takes its moral
responsibilities seriously, there is
another very good reason for this:
it makes good commercial sense.
Head of Fleet William Wallace put
together a working group to lead
Oldendorff’s eco-initiatives, including
Scott Bergeron, Chris Fee, Torsten
Barenthin and Paul Jeffrey – a team
whose work is driven simultaneously
by technical, ethical and commercial
considerations. As Chris Fee explains:
“Lower emissions can only really be
achieved through greater efficiency
– and greater efficiency means our
customers get better value. We’re
doing it for the planet, but we’re
doing it for our customers too.”
LARGER PROPELLERS FOR A
SMALLER CARBON FOOTPRINT
Since 2013, the company has
invested $3 billion in 90 new ecovessels built in China, Korea and
Japan: around 95% of the current
fleet consists of “eco” type vessels.
One of the main improvements in
these eco-class ships is the MAN
ME-type ultra-long stroke main
engine. The longer stroke results
in a lower rpm for the engine
driving the propeller, which in turn
allows the use of a larger propeller
that significantly increases
propulsion efficiency.
LIGHTING THE WAY FOR OTHERS
There have also been improvements
outside the engine room. In the
last three years, for example, we
replaced fluorescent tube light bulbs
with longer-lasting and more energy
efficient LED bulbs on 61 vessels. The
annual energy saving is estimated
at 79 MWh, resulting in an average
CO2 reduction of 42 tonnes per vessel
per year.
Statistics like this are impressive,
but also necessary to validate each
initiative. Scott Bergeron explains:
“We’re not trying to write headlines.
We want to prove the effectiveness
of what we’re doing to ourselves
– and we can only do that through
accurate measurement and
monitoring. Priorities can change
very quickly and new research and
new technologies are coming out
all the time. We need to constantly
measure efficiency levels. Without
the right data we don’t know if
we’re making the right calls.”
AN INDUSTRY-WIDE EFFORT
Oldendorff has never been afraid
to go it alone, but the drive for low
emissions is also a collective effort
– and we are determined to play our
part in industry-wide initiatives.
In 2019 Oldendorff became members
of the Getting to Zero Coalition
(GTZ) – a partnership between the
Global Maritime Forum, the Friends
of Ocean action, and the World
Economic Forum. The coalition is
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committed to maritime shipping’s
so-called “moonshoot ambition” –
to get commercially viable deep sea
zero-emission vessels powered by
zero-emission fuels into operation
by 2030. We have set up our own
collaborations too, for example
with the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, where we are
funding research into technologies
previously only available to the
aerospace industry.
It is also important that we measure
ourselves against the rest of the
industry. In 2015, we registered our
vessels on the Environmental Ship
Index (ESI), an initiative launched
by the International Association
of Ports and Harbors (IAPH). It’s
a voluntary system that gives a
fleet a score between 0 and 100.
A rating of 0 is the minimum score
needed to be compliant with the
environmental standards set by the
International Maritime Organisation
(IMO): a score of 100 would
essentially indicate an emissionsfree vessel. As of today, we are
proud that our owned fleet has an
average ESI score of 33.47, showing
that we are achieving significantly
better energy efficiency than that
presently mandated by the IMO –
and that the working group’s efforts
are paying off.
