Maersk Line’s CO2 data verified

Maersk Line will now add the CO2 data – verified by Lloyd’s Register – as one of eight performance measures in scorecards that are presented to customers.

"Maersk Line is to be congratulated for taking the lead in promoting transparency and credibility with regard to carbon emissions," says Madlen King, head of climate change & sustainability at Lloyd’s Register.

The next challenge is to get other shipping lines to participate and thereby make independent verification an industry standard, according to Jacob Sterling, head of climate & environment in Maersk Line. This would enable customers to choose shipping lines based on their environmental performance.

"It used to be that ‘you cannot manage what you cannot measure‘," added Sterling. "That’s not the case any more. We will work to develop a global industry standard for verification of shipping’s CO2 emissions."

This effort is centred within the Clean Cargo Working Group, which consists of shipping companies and large customers in search of ways to reduce shipping’s carbon footprint.

Before issuing its first-ever verification, Lloyd’s Register checked whether the CO2 emissions calculated in 2009 corresponded with what auditors could find in the comprehensive vessel reporting system at Maersk Line’s central offices.  The audit process also included a visit on board Maersk Clementine to check whether its log history corresponded with the information in reporting system.

"If the CO2 data held by the shore office is not supported by a credible reporting system, then we would not be able to verify the data and provide an assurance statement," said Peter Catchpole from Lloyd’s Register’s environmental product development team. "In this instance, we also checked onboard records and reporting procedures to give greater confidence in the reported data."

Peter Boyd, chief operations officer at Carbon War Room, commented: "Maersk has set a precedent for the shipping industry by making available this credible and detailed environmental data to their customers. We would like to see effective comparisons across the entire fleet with ubiquitous indexing. Maersk has laid down an important challenge today, underlining that progress in efficiency can be made economically, and without industry-wide consensus."

Maersk Line’s goal is to reduce its carbon emissions by 25% from 2007-2020 per container moved.