With cars, trains and planes all investing in sustainable solutions, the time has come for cargo ships to embrace greener practices.
The European company Fair Transport, is leading by example with two cargo sailboats operating in the North Atlantic with a new vessel the 130m ‘Ecoliner’ under construction. The hybrid design is expected to match the speed and freight prices of traditional motor vessels but decrease the polluting emissions of these ships by a minimum of 50%.
From fair trade to fair transport ‘chocolatiers’ are now able to maintain their ethics of sustainability from harvest to hungry patron – as with the Grenada Chocolate Company, who used Fair Transport’s 32m brigantine Tres Hombres to become the first chocolate maker to ship five tons of award-winning organic dark chocolate from Grenada in the West Indies to New York, Portsmouth, UK and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Fair Transport is not the first or indeed the only innovators incorporating green materials or technology to ocean vessels.
For Expedition
The Pangaea Expedition, led by Mike Horn and supported by Nespresso, set sail back in 2008 with the aim to educate youth about sustainability by enabling them to experience the natural world firsthand. Participants travelled to ports around the world, while learning about environmental challenges and developing potential solutions aboard Pangaea, a 35-metre sailboat made from 50 tonnes of aluminium. The boat was designed to be as environmentally sustainable as possible, the lowermost part of the ship is 100% made of aluminium, and the ship produces energy with the lowest possible levels of emissions and pollution.
Solar powered sailboats like the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, a 115ft catamaran, completing a global voyage of 32,401 nm, earlier this month.
For Enterprise
Offering a solution for developing countries, Greenheart are also exploring solar technologies with smart design. Aiming to build the world’s first small ship to feature reliable, universal sails with a simple and proven solar panel/storage battery/DC electric drive.
