Drawing on our Natural Capital
The primary environmental impacts of shipping are emissions and discharges. At sea and in port, these
outputs are substantially all regulated and compliance is enforced across international, regional and local
jurisdictions.
We recognise our responsibility to reduce the impact of our operations on air, sea and land, and our
Pacific Basin Management System is designed to measure and continually improve every aspect of fleet
operations, including our environmental outputs.
Our environmental philosophy is centred on our commitment to being a responsible company at the forefront of environmental
efforts within the dry bulk shipping industry.
We have embedded across our global footprint at sea and ashore environmental programmes and initiatives that embrace
environmental stewardship and, specifically, serve to reduce our atmospheric emissions, marine discharges and resource
consumption. Broadly speaking, we achieve this by:
Adopting environmentally-friendly
technologies and practices across
our business
Pursuing environmental initiatives
at sea and on land that meet or go
beyond what is required of us by
law and regulations
Promoting more modest practices
even if they only bring relatively small
benefits to the environment, as we
believe group-wide and individual
contributions make a difference
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One of the ways we reduce the environmental impact of
our operations is by our efficient operation of modern ships
designed and equipped for efficiency.
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Through our largely counter-cyclical acquisition of
newbuilding vessels and modern second-hand ships,
we renew our fleet with new or modern ships of the best,
efficient designs and equipped with technical enhancements
that reduce atmospheric emissions and marine discharges.
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Similarly, we retrofit our existing ships in operation with
technical enhancements that reduce atmospheric emissions
and marine discharges, and we adopt operational measures
to minimise our ships’ fuel consumption and emissions.
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Environmental measures embraced by our employees at
sea and ashore include training and defined policies and
practices such as reducing our consumption of electricity,
water and other materials, and recycling.
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Our policies and guidelines are designed to promote
environmental awareness, mandate environmentallyfriendly
activities and promote similar behaviour at work
and in the communities where our ships trade and our
employees live and work.
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The first step to improving the environmental performance
of our fleet is to monitor, measure and analyse the outputs
of our vessels. From there, we can assess and adopt
measures to reduce our environmental impacts, with
performance improvements achieved through both technical
and operational enhancements.
Tackling our Environmental Responsibilities
Propelling a vessel across oceans requires many resources, the outputs of which impact the environment, as summarised on
page 12.
We take a holistic approach to reducing our operations’ impact on the atmosphere, sea and land. Our Pacific Basin
Management System ashore and at sea conforms to the mandatory International Safety Management (ISM) Code and is also
certified by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) to voluntary standards, including ISO 14001:2004 for our environmental
management system. We track the effectiveness of our Environmental Management Systems using KPIs.
Environmental Responsibilities
We seek to minimise our impact on the environment
from atmospheric emissions, resource consumption
and marine discharges
through the adoption of energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly ship designs, technologies and practices at sea and
ashore. The information below is a summary of significant initiatives we pursue to reduce our environmental impact.
Atmospheric Emissions & Fuel Efficiency
The main measures and technologies we use to minimise our emissions include:
Fuel-efficient Operational Measures
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Upgraded adaptive autopilot
systems reduce rudder movements
and improve course-keeping by
automatically adapting to load
characteristics and weather
conditions.
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Our proprietary Right Speed
Programme determines optimal
operating speeds based on
prevailing freight rates and fuel
prices.
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Optimal scheduling of our fleet
coupled with fuel-efficient voyage
planning minimises ballast passages
resulting in fuel savings.
Improving Hull and Propulsion
Hydrodynamics
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Fitting propeller boss cap fins
improves propulsion hydrodynamics,
which improves fuel efficiency and
reduces emissions.
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Application of anti-fouling paints over
a larger hull area reduces drag and
improves fuel efficiency even when
fully laden.
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Computer-aided calculation and
monitoring of hull performance
over time allows us to optimise hull
condition management.
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By continually renewing our fleet,
we introduce ships with fuel-efficient
hull designs and machinery which
reduces fuel consumption.
Improving Engine Performance
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Fuel combustion catalysts facilitate
more complete and cleaner
combustion. This leads to fuel
savings and reduces the frequency
of engine overhaul maintenance.
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Computer-aided optimisation of
cylinder lubrication and machinery
overhaul intervals leads to reduced
fuel and lubricating oil consumption.
CO2 Emissions Performance in 2016
Due to the above technological and
operational measures and the overall
efficiency of our large, modern fleet,
our carbon intensity remains among
the lowest in our segment.
Our aim is to maximise cargo carried
per tonne of energy consumed.
Our fleet’s carbon emissions in 2016
increased 3% to 11.02 grams of CO2
per tonne-mile, as calculated using
the industry-standard ship Energy
Efficiency Operational Indicator (EEOI)
method. The increase was due to our
faster average operating speeds as
optimised by our proprietary Right
Speed Programme based on prevailing freight rates and fuel prices.
The
increase was positively partly offset by
the increased efficiency of our fleet as
our newbuilding programme delivers.
We continued to apply technologies
and practices that we implemented
in earlier years to minimise our fuel
consumption and emissions, and
benefitted from the delivery into our
fleet of new ships of efficient design.
In 2016, we added six modern ships to
our fleet on the water, and the average
age of our owned ships was 8.5 years
as at 31 December 2016. Four more
have delivered in early 2017 and
three further ships remain contracted
to deliver into our owned fleet by
mid-2017 – all efficient and of the best
design for our trades.
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Marine Discharges & Waste Management
The main measures and technologies we use to minimise our marine discharge and waste include:
Reducing Marine Discharges
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Our ISM-compliant safety management system prescribes system controls, procedural safeguards and training to prevent
and respond to oil spillage.
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Oily water separators minimise the risk of inadvertently pumping out contaminated bilge water.
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IMO-compliant ballast water management plans set out strict practices to minimise the spread of aquatic species.
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We use biocide-based paints and monitor advances in more eco-friendly paints.
Waste Management
Garbage compactors on our ships facilitate easy storage of operational garbage (excluding food waste and cargo residues)
until it can be disposed of responsibly on shore.
KPI A1.6
Handling of waste and reduction initiatives
Marine Discharge, Pollution and Waste Performance in 2016
We aim to not have any pollution incidents.
In 31,700 ship days in 2016, our owned fleet committed no marine pollution
violations (2015: no pollution violations). This MARPOL performance is
indicative of the effectiveness of our Pacific Basin Management System and
the high standard of professionalism of our seafarers.
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Green Efforts Ashore
Across our offices ashore, we do what we reasonably can to minimise our
footprint by addressing environmental elements that are within our control.
Guidelines and communications are regularly posted and policies and practices
are in place across our network of offices to:
- Reduce consumption of electricity, water and materials
- Recycle office waste
Pacific Basin was awarded a Silver Label in the WWF’s Low-carbon Office
Operation Programme that measures and tracks outputs and Energy Consumption from our headquarters in Hong Kong.
An independent audit of our environmental performance determined that our office in Hong Kong (where 59% of our shorebased
staff work) produced carbon emissions of 1,067 metric tonnes for the 2015/2016 audit year (2014/15: 1,329).
Our Hong Kong headquarters’ carbon intensity in 2016 reduced 20% to 5.3 tonnes CO2 per employee due to a number of
initiatives including:
- eliminating ten computer servers;
- more Skype-based video meetings reducing the need for air travel; and
- switching from business class to economy class air travel.
Our Pacific Basin Management System ashore and at sea conforms to the mandatory International Safety
Management (ISM) Code. It is also certified by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) to voluntary ISO
14001:2004 standards for our environmental management system.
We also disclose our carbon footprint data through:
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the Carbon Footprint Repository (CFR) developed by Hong Kong’s Environment Bureau
for listed companies in Hong Kong; and
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the HKQAA Sustainability Rating and Research for the Hang Seng Corporate
Sustainability Index Series.
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