Our history
Clean shipping born from green chemistry
During the project Grön kemi (~Green chemistry) the focus was to make chemicals more environmentally adapted. The object was to maintain the function of the chemicals, but with lower environmental impact. During the project, Ulf Duus and Jan Ahlbom visited several different shipping companies and did thorough inspections of their vessels. Shipping’s main environmental problems was then found to be the marine heavy fuel usage, lack of bilge water cleaning and use of unnecessary strong chemicals. These environmental problems resulted in increased amounts of toxins in the archipelago of west Sweden. This was presented in the report “Rent skepp kommer lastat” from May 2003.
Further development needed
In the year 2006 all the Ministers of Environment or the Ministers of Transport from the countries around the North Sea met to discuss among other things, more environmentally friendly shipping. Ulf Duus got the assignment from Region Västra Götaland to partake in the development of the discussed shipping issues. Green chemistry then produced the report “Clean solutions for ships” which focused on five different vessels that all call on the port of Gothenburg. Interesting and well-functioning measures to nine problem areas was presented. In May 2006 the seminar “Mind the gap” was arranged together with Port of Gothenburg and the Swedish Shipowners’ Association. The focus was that the shipping industry has every reason to increase their environmental performance as there are many technical solutions to reduce the negative environmental impact. Over 200 people participated in the seminar which attracted a lot of attention from the media.
Starting Clean Shipping
When the Green chemistry project reached the main goals and the project managers, Jan Ahlbom and Ulf Duus could hand over the project management to the different actors within the industry, there still was one area needing further development. From October 2006 the special focus has been on the shipping industries environmental impact through Clean Shipping Project.
Sponsors to the Clean Shipping Project
Between year 2007 and 2010 this project was sponsored by the European Union. During 2010 and until 2012 two new sponsors have joined the project. The Clean Shipping Project is sponsored by Region Västra Götaland, the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland, the Göteborg Region Association of Local Authorities, the Environment Administration in the City of Gothenburg and Port of Gothenburg.
During the year 2012 the plan is that the project will be taken over by an independent, long term, sustainable operator or operators.