CBH Group operates four bulk terminals in Western Australia, including Albany, and is the only grain-focused company to join the Blue Visby Consortium. Photo: CBH Group

THE CBH Group last month announced it had joined a consortium of companies participating in the Blue Visby project, which supports research into solutions that help reduce the international shipping industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The consortium has been working on the Blue Visby Solution, an integrated, multilateral shipping scheduling and contractual system that notifies ships of the optimal date and time for arriving at their destination, eradicating the old “sail fast, then wait” approach to sailing.

The Blue Visby Solution aims to distribute the arrival times of groups of ships heading for the same destination, providing an optimal target arrival time for each ship while maintaining the scheduled arrival order.

This is achieved by analysing several factors, including the weather, performance of each ship together and congestion at the destination.

Crucially, the Blue Visby Solution provides the contractual architecture necessary, including a sharing mechanism for costs and benefits.

As vessel charterers, CBH is participating in the Blue Visby project by sharing vessel information to the neutral, independent Blue Visby Solution platform, which then communicates to the vessel their optimal arrival time.

This is determined by an algorithm, and without changing arrival order or time.

It is only by consortium members co-operating and sharing vessel information that productivity efficiencies and greenhouse gas emission reductions can be achieved.

CBH head of chartering Pia van Wyngaard said that by maximising the efficiency of each vessel, CO₂ emissions could be reduced by up to 5 percent.

“By providing vessel operators with an optimal arrival time, they can then adjust the vessel’s cruising speed and reduce fuel consumption by using the most efficient speed and route,” Ms van Wyngaard said.

“The CBH Group has a target of reducing our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50pc by 2030, and for our site to customer emissions to be net zero by 2050.”

“Being part of the Blue Visby Consortium and reducing the emissions created by shipping our grain to customers is a great way to help achieve our targets and care for the communities and environment we operate in.”

The Blue Visby Consortium consists of 28 companies and institutions, and those with relation to grain include Port of Newcastle, New South Wales, and Japan’s Marubeni Corporation.

The consortium is co-ordinated by Napa Oy and Stephenson Harwood LLP, experts in their respective fields of maritime technology and maritime law.

Source: CBH Group