New Sustainable Shipping Initiative programme funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation will provide sustainability insights to accelerate transformation across the maritime ecosystem.
LONDON, 29 January 2024 – The Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) today announces the launch of the State of Sustainable Shipping (SoSS) programme, funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. The SoSS programme builds on the Roadmap to a Sustainable Shipping Industry, by providing comprehensive and timely insights into progress made against six vision areas: Oceans, Communities, People, Transparency, Finance, and Energy.
The SoSS programme will use a mix of digital, research, and strategic foresight methods to track and challenge the maritime industry’s sustainability performance, accelerating progress by sharing knowledge, identifying transformative pathways, and enabling more effective decision-making by maritime value chain actors. The SoSS programme amplifies the relevance of the Roadmap, which was co-created with industry as a ‘call-to-action’ in response to the complexity of the global challenges faced today. The Roadmap defines tangible milestones to be collectively achieved in the coming decades to build a sustainable maritime sector.
Founded in 2010, SSI has spent the last decade working on expanding the definition of sustainability in the shipping sector, pioneering on issues such as transparency in ship recycling, seafarers’ welfare, sustainable marine fuels, green steel, and the need for shipping’s transition to be just and equitable.
Ram Ganesh Kamatham, Project Manager at the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, said: “The Sustainable Shipping Initiative has a track record of inspiring and influencing maritime transformation, being an early mover on identifying and engaging emerging sustainability issues. With the support of Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the State of Sustainable Shipping (SoSS) programme will continue to catalyse change by providing actionable insights to business decision-makers navigating their sustainability journeys.”
Olivia Swift, Senior Programme Manager at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, said: “In order to accelerate shipping’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, we need to provide organisations with the information they need to mitigate safety and sustainability threats. The Sustainable Shipping Initiative is providing unrivalled leadership in defining sustainable shipping, and through this new partnership and other research projects, we’re helping create a systematic plan towards achieving it.”
Access to the data from the programme will allow maritime stakeholders to prioritise investments effectively and encourage systemic change on the most pressing safety and sustainability issues facing the international shipping community.
This new grant builds on an existing and successful relationship between the organisations. The Engineering X Safer End of Engineered Life programme, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, also provided funding for the Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative, then hosted by the SSI, through a two-year grant in 2020. In 2022, Lloyd’s Register Foundation provided funding for the first SEAFAIRER roundtable, arranged in collaboration with the Institute for Human Rights and Business and Mission to Seafarers.
More recently the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and SSI co-hosted an official side event at COP28 titled ‘Staying on Course for 1.5: Africa’s Role in Accelerating Shipping’s Green Transition’. In addition, SSI partnered with LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, a joint initiative between Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Lloyd’s Register, and UMAS to conduct an analysis that estimated potential CO₂ emissions savings from progressive adoption of steel with lower embodied emissions by the shipping industry.
Founded in 2010, SSI has spent the last decade working on expanding the definition of sustainability in the shipping sector, pioneering on issues such as transparency in ship recycling, seafarers’ welfare, sustainable marine fuels, green steel, and the need for shipping’s transition to be just and equitable. Lloyd’s Register is a founding member of SSI.
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Notes to Editors
About the Sustainable Shipping Initiative
The Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) is a member-led group of leaders catalysing change across the maritime ecosystem. Since 2010, SSI has brought together shipowners, operators and managers; banks and financial stakeholder; cargo owners; classification societies; non-profits; ports; and service providers to advance environmental, social and economic goals for a sustainable shipping industry.
About Lloyd’s Register Foundation
Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global charity that supports research, innovation, and education to make the world a safer place. Its mission is to use the best evidence and insight to help the global community focus on tackling the world’s most pressing safety and risk challenges. For more information, please visit www.lrfoundation.org.uk