Maersk launches sustainable container floor
Traditionally, shipping lines‘ containers are fitted with tropical hardwood floors. With two cubic metres of hardwood required to produce floors for three 40-foot containers, the container industry uses between 1.2 and 1.5 million cubic metres of hardwood a year to meet the demand for new containers.
"Illegal logging is widely recognised as a serious threat to forests, people and wildlife. We feel obligated to use our purchasing power to push for higher standards and ensure that the timber we use for container floors come from responsible forestry" said Jacob Sterling, Maersk Line’s head of Climate & Environment.
Effective January 2011, all new Maersk Line containers will have floors made of timber from sources employing responsible forestry practices or non-wood alternatives such as bamboo and recycled plastic. Any tropical hardwood used will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). As an interim solution applicable only in 2011, tropical hardwood verified as legally compliant will be accepted while other floor types are scaled up in production.
To date, Maersk Line has purchased 64,000 containers that comply with the new policy. Over the next five years, Maersk Line will purchase approximately three million containers, more than doubling its current container fleet. A large percentage of the container fleet will therefore have new alternative floorboards within a relative short time span. Certified floors will be in all Maersk Line containers within eighteen years – the typical lifetime of a container.
The new alternative flooring solutions have been tested and developed in partnership with company suppliers. Maersk Container Industry (MCI) in Dongguan, China produced its first FSC-labelled container for Maersk Line in April 2011. The container is fitted with hardwood floor from certified responsible forestry.
Quelle: eyefortransport
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