Shipping Efficiency - Rocky Mountain Institute

We aim to drive a 25% improvement in the fuel efficiency and carbon footprint of global commercial shipping fleets by 2025.

What is Shipping Efficiency?

We are improving the fuel efficiency and carbon footprint of the global commercial shipping fleet by bridging gaps in market information and influencing key stakeholders to embed efficiency into their decision making.

Why It Matters

Maritime shipping transports 90 percent of the world’s goods and much of the raw materials and agricultural products needed to make those goods. But transporting huge volumes of products across the globe comes at a cost. The shipping industry emits nearly a billion tons of carbon per year—more than Germany’s annual emissions—and there are no globally mandated regulations to abate these emissions.

Who’s Involved

We are working with BetterFleet, financial institutions, ship owners and charterers, and governing bodies to bring an unprecedented level of transparency to shipping performance and show how energy efficient vessels improve value and cut costs.

What We’re Doing

BetterFleet

Revealing how efficiently the world’s fleet operates with a free-to-access ship operational efficiency portal that identifies areas for improvement by showing how efficiently an individual vessel has operated relative to itself and its peers over the past year.

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GHG Emissions Rating

A tool that allows charterers to compare a ship’s design efficiency to peer vessels using a simple A–G scale, increasing demand for more efficient vessels by making the potential for fuel savings transparent.

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Finance

Working with financial actors to understand and manage climate risk in the global maritime industry.

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Industry Engagement

Working with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), member states, and industry organizations to ensure that the shipping industry will thrive in a future low-carbon economy.

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What We’ve Accomplished

In December 2016, we launched BetterFleet, the first publicly available and comprehensive online portal revealing the operational efficiency of ships throughout the world.
In 2016, over 2 billion tons of cargo moved on efficient ships selected with the GHG Emissions Rating we developed with RightShip.
HSH Nordbank and KfW IPEX-Bank now use energy-efficiency data in deciding which vessels will receive financing.
Carbon War Room’s direct engagement with the White House prompted the U.S. to submit a paper, with CWR’s input, that strongly influenced IMO’s development of a climate “road map.”
We helped fund a multitechnology efficiency retrofit, and identified a profit-sharing business model that enabled profitable investment in energy efficiency technologies, with shipowner Hammonia Reederei and charterer Intermarine. The deal was recognized by Business Green as the Energy Efficiency Project of the Year, and shortlisted for Lloyd’s List Deal of the Year Award.
In August 2016, our report Revealed Preferences for Energy Efficiency in the Shipping Market exposed market dynamics and failures that are key to designing effective pathways and regulations for reducing carbon emissions.
In 2014, Canada’s Prince Rupert Port Authority and Port Metro Vancouver became the first ports in the world to offer incentives for the most efficient ships.