Making Waves: The Sustainable Shipping Initiative joins RSB
Following on from a successful collaboration at our 2018 Annual Meeting, RSB welcomed the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) into our member community. Becoming an RSB member is a natural next step for the SSI, a grouping of ambitious maritime leaders building a more sustainable industry. SSI’s interest in biofuels is reflected in its Roadmap which explores possible alternative energy sources – including biofuels – to reduce CO2 emissions as one of six key vision areas. SSI saw the power of our collaborative, multi-sector community in action in Berlin in December 2018.
As part of their commitment to Low Carbon Shipping, SSI has convened a Biofuels Working Group composed of representatives from Bunge, The China Navigation Company, IMC, Lloyds Register, Louis Dreyfus Company, A.P. Moeller-Maersk, Oldendorff Carriers as well as Forum for the Future and WWF. SSI looks forward to engaging with RSB throughout 2019, during which the Working Group is facilitating a series of debates that will feed into a broader stakeholder dialogue, exploring the role that biofuels play in the decarbonisation of shipping and alternative fuels.
RSB will provide a platform in which this group can learn from and contribute to our on-going commitment to creating a sustainable bioeconomy. By unlocking the expertise and experience of other sectors, SSI is changing the industry narrative through the maritime sustainability journey and by exploring the use of alternative fuels.
“We are ambitious: decarbonising the maritime sector is a huge task! But we have seen that it is possible to change an industry narrative to become more sustainable, just as we have seen in the aviation industry,”said Andrew Stephens, SSI’s Executive Director. “We believe that we will find better solutions, faster, by building alliances with and learning from other industries and leaders. We, at the SSI, are delighted to be collaborating with the RSB and we’re looking forward to further discussing ways of how we can draw on your experiences for the maritime sector’s sustainability journey.”
Welcoming the SSI to our community, RSB Executive Director Rolf Hogan had this to say, “The importance of cross-sectoral collaboration cannot be overstated – it is here that the most innovative and exciting innovations can be unlocked. We are really happy to be welcoming SSI to our community and are proud that this ambitious organisation has chosen to work with RSB – highlighting their genuine commitment to the highest level of sustainability for the maritime industry, as well as their willingness to learn and collaborate with their fellow members.”
Members of our community are driving the development of the sustainable bioeconomy – by working on our best-in-class sustainability standard, collaborating on exciting projects and unlocking solutions from different industry sectors and areas of expertise – and we look forward to SSI’s contribution!
