Meet the Change-Makers: Maersk leadership is cutting global ship pollution
Posted October 18, 2011
Today's online edition of OnEarth, NRDC's award-winning magazine, includes an interview with Jacob Sterling, who leads the climate and environmental initiatives at Maersk, the global shipping fleet.
It's part of a continuing series, "Meet the Change-Makers," that highlights business leaders who are moving their industries to a more sustainable future, in advance of government requirements to do so.
As OnEarth writer Adam Aston explains, "If global commerce has a circulatory system, it's the network of thousands of container vessels that ply the world's oceans, moving goods from port to port."
These ships bring us what we want, when we want it. Our coffee from South America, our iPods from China, and so many other things in our homes and offices come to us onboard these ships.
And it's not a one-way business: ships leave our shores loaded with grain, cotton or other commodities.
But the flip side of all of these goods moving around the globe is a lot of pollution.
According to Aston, recent EU estimates suggest that in a single year, a single container ship can vent the same amount of sulfur oxide (SOx) gases as 50 million cars annually--and roughly twice the global warming pollution of the world's aviation fleet.
Maersk has long been an early adopter of environmental technologies and best practices in the shipping industry. Their success has made it easier for NRDC and other advocates to push for policies that require cleaner practices across the entire industry.
Indeed, Maersk's pioneering use of low-sulfur fuels helped pave the way to the adoption of an Emissions Control Area around North America that will eliminate 14,000 premature deaths and $110 billion in health costs, annually, by 2020.
Earlier this year, they contracted with a Korean ship building company to build the world's most energy-efficient container ships. These super-huge ships will carry 18,000 containers apiece, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions per container by 20 percent and fuel costs per container by 35 percent.
Reading the environmental news coming from Washington these days can be incredibly discouraging. Check out OnEarth's interview with Jacob Sterling, for a breath of fresh air.
