- Unifeeder has announced it is offering its customers a new carbon insetting solution to decarbonise the seaborne sections of their supply chains.
- Unifeeder said the service, ‘GreenBox’, is an important element in its sustainability strategy, which aims to cut the business’ emissions by 47% to 2030 and enable customers to accelerate their Scope 3 reductions.
Feeder vessel operator Unifeeder will bunker some of its vessels with biofuel blends. It will then allocate tokens equivalent to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use of biofuel on these vessels to cargo owners using a book-and-claim mechanism, reports Engine.
Each token will be equivalent to one mt of CO2-equivalent emissions reduced on Unifeeder’s vessel. It will issue up to 25,000 carbon tokens in the introductory phase this year – which equates to 25,000 mt of CO2-equivalent emissions reduced.
CO2 inset-based approach
Book-and-claim is a supply chain model that allows cargo owners to purchase emission reduction credits from other shipowners that have already invested in low- and zero-emission fuels. The carbon savings are then documented in the buyers’ emissions dashboard and audited annually by a third party.
It helps buyers balance out emissions from their ships without investing in low- and zero-emission fuel infrastructure, technologies or vessels.
Since all verification processes are certified and audited by external authorities, the possibility of double counting or duplicate issues is “ruled out”, Unifeeder explained.
Book-and-claim enables cargo owners to “manage the demand for climate-neutral container transport,” it said. “By using carbon insets, the cargo owner accelerates the use of alternative fuels and thus significantly supports the decarbonization of the shipping industry.”
In simpler terms, this means that Unifeeder’s customers can buy tokens even if their shipments are made on fossil-fuelled vessels due to the mechanism, as long as they pay the premium for the service.
Unifeeder has not specified how many vessels will be powered by biofuel blends under this program. Customers will also be able to claim CO2 reductions from its methanol-capable ships once they are delivered in 2026, it said.
Alternative route to claim CO2 savings
“It will be many years before we achieve regulatory-driven price parity between conventional fuels plus their CO2 surcharges and alternative fuels,” Unifeeder’s director of group decarbonization, Christian Hoepfner said. Insetting program such as these “will accelerate the industry’s ability to utilize more alternative fuels and crucially support us to use new alternative sources beyond biofuels, such as ammonia and methanol,” he added.
The past couple of years have seen an increasing number of logistics companies and cargo owners use carbon insetting to claim CO2 reductions.
Swedish logistics company Scanlog will provide carbon credits equating to up to 100% CO2 emission reduction by using a book and claim mechanism based on biomethane.
Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) and Scan Global joined Hapag-Lloyd’s book-and-claim system to claim up to 90% CO2 emission reduction compared to conventional fuels using biomethane onboard vessels.
Hellman Logistics joined a carbon insetting programme with South Korean container line HMM and Nestle has been using Maersk’s biofuel credits to reduce its seaborne emissions.
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Source: Engine
