By
Rebecca Gibson |
Stena Line’s 34 Europe-based vessels, including passenger ferries, reduced total sulphur emissions by 53% between 2014 and 2015, according to Stena’s Sustainability Report for 2015.
The reduction was driven by the introduction of a new January 2015 regulation mandating that fuel must contain less than 0.1% sulphur content in Northern Europe’s Emission Control Areas.
All of Stena Line’s shipping companies, which operate a global fleet of 93 vessels, reduced fuel consumption and lowered emissions last year.
“Focusing on sustainability is not only a priority for Stena Line, but for the entire industry which needs long term sustainable fuel options to maintain its competiveness,” said Carl-Johan Hagman, CEO at Stena Line. “We are currently conducting several initiatives looking at alternative fuels within Stena. Our Methanol Project on Stena Germanica is one example. We are also looking at battery powered vessels, which is now starting to become an interesting option for shipping.”
Since 2015, Stena’s shipping companies have aimed to reduce fuel consumption by 3.5% per year as part of the Energy Saving Programme (ESP). Last year, the company beat this target, lowering total fuel use by 2.8%.
“For Stena Line, the efforts led to a reduction of fuel consumption of 4% per nautical mile and a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions of 2.5% per nautical mile,” said Hagman.
“We have a broad scope and are currently driving several different initiatives in a bid to reduce our fuel consumption within ESP,” said Erik Lewenhaupt, head of sustainability at Stena Line. “It covers everything from changing bulbs and propellers to enabling our ferries to sail with reduced water resistance. Other initiatives include using digital solutions such as our Fuel Management System, where we collect a huge amount of data from the systems onboard our 34 ferries which is them analysed and used to optimise our day to day operations. We have set an ambitious target of trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 35% per nautical mile by 2030.”
Stena Line’s full sustainability report can be found here.