Data Into Actions: Driving Change In An Era Of Influence

There is a growing urgency and requirement for shipping to demonstrate immediate progress on its emissions reduction pathway. The need to decarbonise – and to be able to do this profitably – is a historic challenge for a sector used to commodity fuels and a standard way of operating.

The challenges of decarbonisation will require clean technologies, alternative fuels and, as another crucial element, more intelligent use of data and technology.

In fact, the tramp shipping sector emits around 400m tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, some of which we can tackle immediately with data-led insights.

Data and its integral role in underpinning sustainability

Shipping has a wealth of data at its fingertips — insights from fleets, vessels, ports, weather and more — that is now being increasingly recognised as a driver for real business change.

Using this data, users can unlock and underpin more intelligent decision-making to improve revenue and cut their emissions. This means that actionable data insights are immediately achievable first steps towards realising greater sustainability outcomes.

With the right ecosystem of advanced technological solutions to interpret shipping’s wide array of available information, owners and operators can enhance performance and reduce CO2 emissions, all while increasing TCE earnings and remaining profitable.

We should be used to and willing to embrace the power of data as a solution in this way. After all, over a twelve-month period that has proven challenging for many, more and more players within our industry have increasingly turned to technology to help realise efficiencies and ensure the survival of their organisations.

The level of technological advancement is a considerable and exciting acceleration for our market; one that we should take advantage of in terms of sustainability progress. And while we’ll undoubtedly see significant progression in technological capability, we cannot ignore the impact they can have on our operations and our climate now.

At ZeroNorth, decarbonising shipping is central to our vision. We believe in purpose-led solutions, and the ability to not only support change but steer it, and this drive for CO2 emissions reduction was embedded into our very business structure and internal culture. Using data, we think we can tackle 5-10% of emissions today, which equates to increased revenue of $50 to $100 USD per vessel, per day. It’s clear to see why taking action on data insights today can be meaningful.

Ultimately, the available data on the market can already generate tangible actions on emissions reduction if it is used to power market-leading algorithms and software. However, we also believe that the next few years will be instrumental, and extraordinarily exciting, in terms of these continued innovations, and we look forward to contributing to the debate and efforts to mitigate our impact on the climate.