Cargill announced a commitment to cut carbon emissions from its transportation business by 15% by 2020. The company’s pledge was revealed in its first corporate responsibility report that focused specifically on its transportation business. Cargill has also announced its plans to reduce gross greenhouse gas emissions by 10% by 2020 across its global operations.
Cargill says the company completed a comprehensive materiality assessment for its operations in mid-2017, then set actions and targets to improve its operations in the areas of climate change and health, safety and well-being, ocean health and biodiversity, and inclusion and diversity. The company hopes to “lead dry bulk shipping, one of the world’s oldest and most traditional industries, into a new era by making shipping safer, more efficient and sustainable,” the report states.
Cargill said that notable changes were made within its fleet composition and vessel efficiency in 2017, and the ocean transportation business reduced its CO2 emissions by 5.7%. Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill’s ocean transportation business, says the company is “relatively pleased” with the fleet’s performance, and that the whole Cargill team looks forward to achieving more significant improvements in coming years.
In 2017, Cargill’s ocean transportation business reduced its CO2 emissions by 5.7%.
New Tech & Partnerships Lead the Way
As has been widely recognized in the environmental management industry, Cargill announces in its report that it is necessary to invest in and develop new technologies that will help the company improve its fleet performance. And, like other companies have also stated, Cargill plans to work on partnerships that will help it reach its goals. For example, the company says it will participate in a decarbonization project in partnership with the Global Maritime Forum.
Additionally, Cargill will:
- comply with new low-sulphur regulations and champion compliance through its membership associations, particularly the Trident Alliance
- work with relevant stakeholders on a fair fuel-transition period ahead of the Global Sulphur Cap
- will optimize its period fleet by increasing the number of vessels rated A through D by RightShip, always seeking to increase the number of higher-rated vessels where feasible
- investigate carbon pricing in its various forms
- investigate a carbon offset scheme for its travel and events
- implement a more robust reporting and measurement program by separating various types of emissions (CO 2 , NO X and SO X) and categories within operations and supply chains
Ocean Transport Changes to Come
The shipping industry may face an upheaval in coming months and years as environmental policy makes a shift on focus from land to sea. Demand for shipping services will double in the next couple of decades, which means that the shipping industry will continue to have a major impact on the global sustainability community, said Norwegian Shipowners’ Association chief executive Sturla Henriksen last year.
“Both in intercontinental and regional shipping, we will see more and more green ships traveling the blue oceans,” Henriksen said.
Ships carry more than 90% of world trade and shipping is the most energy efficient form of transport, the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association claims. Still, maritime transport emits around 1000 million metric tons of CO2 annually and is responsible for about 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the International Maritime Organization.
Shipping emissions are predicted to increase between 50% and 250% by 2050, depending on future economic and energy developments, writes the European Commission.
