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Wallenius: Working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Wallenius Wilhelmsen firmly believes in a sustainable approach to business. It creates long-lasting value for the environment, the wider communities where we operate as well as for the company.

Based on its materiality analysis, the company has identified six SDGs where it can make a difference and tackles these under four strategic focus areas:

• Navigating towards zero emissions
• Valuing people’s wellbeing and diversity
• Protecting life below water
• Being a trusted business partner

The Lean:Green strategy

Today, commitment to environmental, social and business ethics regulations alone isn’t enough; meeting industry’s environmental challenges calls for a leadership approach.

For Wallenius Wilhelmsen, that is embodied in our Lean:Green sustainability strategy. Lean:Green demonstrates a dedication to driving social and environmental progress through action. It is an inherently ambitious strategy; engaging with innovators to find new Lean:Green solutions and being an industry activist to help make sustainability the norm. 

Towards zero-emission logistics

Since 2008, Wallenius Wilhelmsen has managed to reduce vessel CO2 emissions by 32% per tonne/kilometre. That’s good progress for what is already the most climate-efficient transport mode. But it is not enough, and Wallenius Wilhelmsen is working to provide zero-emission logistics. With no viable technologies currently available for deep sea shipping to achieve a zero emission, the need for research, development and innovation is enormous.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen invest in innovation through the Ocean Exchange and Orcelle Award; collaborate broadly on new technologies; work actively for progressive global regulation; as well as continuously working to reduce emissions day to day through increasing its operational efficiency. 

But sustainability is also about mindset and broader collaboration. Too often, old-school thinking and structures focus on optimizing pieces of the supply chain from a narrow financial perspective, ignoring the true cost to the environment. Products are rushed across the sea to reach an accounting deadline, at speeds that greatly increase emissions – only to sit and wait for weeks in a warehouse. Joining forces with its customers on a more modern and holistic view of the supply chain, Wallenius Wilhelmsen is on track to radically reduce emissions today.

Transparency for sustainable vessel recycling

At the end of its life, almost all parts of a ship can be re-used. Recycling steel requires only 30% of the energy used to produce new steel, so properly done, there are great environmental benefits. Unfortunately, up to 80% of all vessel recycling is carried out under appalling safety and environmental conditions.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen practices responsible recycling, and has helped establish the Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative (SRTI), which aims to accelerate a voluntary, market driven approach to responsible ship recycling practices through transparency.

The Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative empowers those who invest in or buy services from shipping companies to make informed decisions on vessel recycling.  With the SRTI they can demand transparency, helping them ensure they do business with companies that recycle responsibly, rather than those who continue with practices that have horrifying human and environmental consequences.