According to a recent New York Times article, shipping giant Maersk has cut its top cruising speed in half over the past two years. In doing so, the company cut fuel consumption on major routes by as much as 30%, reducing costs. They also decreased their ships' emission of greenhouse gases.
According to the article,
“The previous focus has been on ‘What will it cost?’ and ‘Get it to me as fast as possible,’ ” said Soren Stig Nielsen, Maersk’s director of environmental sustainability, who noted that the practice began in 2008, when oil prices jumped to $145 a barrel.
“But now there is a third dimension,” he said. “What’s the CO2 footprint?”
Traveling more slowly, he added, is “a great opportunity” to lower emissions “without a quantum leap in innovation.”
This seems to be a simple solution that even smaller shipping companies can adopt, if they are trying to become more environmentally friendly, but don't have the funds to invest in advanced "green" technologies. Big props to Maersk!
