- SEA20 will be a major force behind smart growth and provide an example of sustainable development.
- The initiative will increase digitization and optimize efficiency to produce results that benefit the economy and the environment.
- It will analyze how to develop new infrastructure that will encourage future growth while prioritizing sustainability.
Wärtsilä announced an ambitious global initiative to confront the impact of climate change in marine communities, says an article published on the website and conveyed by Isabelle Thibault-Ahlström.
SEA20 – a wake-up call
Isabelle Thibault-Ahlström, Communications Manager, Wärtsilä Marine Business highlighted that SEA20 can prove to be a wakeup call for major marine cities. The challenges faced by the world are sea levels rising, digitization and geopolitical and social tensions are impacting the flow of trade.
The SEA2020 initiative plans to create a sustainable infrastructure for the future through collaboration, smart planning and the best ideas from the marine, energy and digital sectors. The non-profit initiative, run by Nordic West Office – a global affairs consultancy and think tank – and enabled by Wärtsilä, is part of the broader project ‘An Oceanic Awakening’.
“The most important part of the movement during the last year has been to make societies understand how important a Smart Marine Ecosystem is for their future. Consequently, it is a way to put pressure on the entire value chain of the marine industry, leading it to more openness, broader co-operation, better connectivity, collaboration, and more ambitious undertakings,” Thibault-Ahlström says.
Cities planning to adopt the project
Eight jurisdictions have signed on to the project:
- The cities of Genoa,
- Hamburg,
- Helsinki,
- Luleå,
- Rotterdam,
- Trieste,
- Vaasa, and
- The U.S. state of Washington.
The goal of the organizers is to have 20 members on board by the end of next year.
Re-envisioning infrastructure
- One major challenge facing SEA20 cities is how to develop new infrastructure that will encourage future growth while prioritizing sustainability.
- Ports provided a catalyst for growth, which means that today many major metropolitan areas are located at or below sea level and are built upon outdated, often environmentally hazardous foundations.
- Finding ways to encourage sustainable development in port cities is critical for the world moving forward, as the shipping industry continues to expand.
“Around 90% of world trade, worth at least USD 24 trillion in goods and services, generating a GDP of USD 2.5 trillion annually, is carried by sea,” says Andrew Calzetti, Marketing Director, Wärtsilä Marine Business. “This gives us enormous leverage. Yet, at the same time, the slow adoption of new technologies has resulted in massive inefficiencies.”
One year in – Meeting highlights
A highlight of the first year was a high-level SEA20 meeting, held in Helsinki in June.
- The event attracted politicians and industry leaders from countries around the world along with analysts and activists working on sustainable maritime issues.
- The meeting was primarily a brainstorming session, aimed at generating ideas for how to create an interconnected maritime sector that prioritizes efficiency and sustainability.
- Attendees discussed preliminary findings from a report conducted by the Nordic West Office on the tensions between urban city planning and the marine industry and noted that there needs to be increased recognition of the interconnectedness of cities and their ports.
- Participants concluded that one of the biggest challenges facing maritime cities is a lack of trust between industry and government, and among city leadership.
- This lack of trust makes it difficult to move forward with solutions because, for one thing, it inhibits the sharing of data.
- The SEA20 forum hopes to become a place to build trust and relationships, making it easier to move forward together.
Focus on attracting new members
“Ultimately, we must change the consumer mindset to focus beyond price, and consider the impact, footprint of every decision we make. This is a marathon that will stretch well beyond 2020,” Calzetti says.
- Raising the profile of SEA20 through the addition of new members will be key to this effort.
- The initiative to increase engagement, along with more practical steps, on both a global and local level, like creating principles for smart marine ecosystems, will be discussed in more detail at the SEA20 2020 Summit.
- SEA20 will release a global analysis of the future of maritime cities and industries.
- The focus of this analysis is to guide the maritime industry’s transformation in a direction whereby business models, value chains and city-planning methodologies can be redesigned to reap maximum benefit for citizens around the world.
- We need to secure a sustainable future for our citizens and the planet.
- The analysis aims to generate actionable points with which to kick-start change initiatives and innovation development programs.
- It will provide a starting point for future discussion among SEA20 members.
Thibault-Ahlström says that communication is key to the initiative’s success.
“There are so many industry stakeholders working independently trying to achieve their own objectives, both at sea and onshore. We must enable and create processes where stakeholders can collaborate towards common goals, which can accelerate change. There is a need for real-time communication networks and data-enabled processes. In short, connectivity across segments and industry verticals. We need to work together,” she says. “We believe we’ve made a start – this is just the beginning of our journey towards a truly connected Smart Marine Ecosystem.”
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Source: Wartsila
