Eco-friendly Shipping: Sustainable Choices in Sea Freight
Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in international logistics. With eco-friendly shipping, you choose sea freight with significantly lower CO₂ emissions. This makes your supply chain more sustainable and strengthens your brand's green reputation.
What is eco-friendly shipping?
Eco-friendly shipping refers to sustainable solutions within sea freight aimed at reducing the ecological footprint of transport. While traditional shipping heavily relies on fossil fuels and therefore constitutes a significant source of CO₂ emissions, eco-friendly shipping offers alternatives that are both more sustainable and efficient.
Practical examples
Eco-friendly shipping isn’t a single solution, but rather a collective term for various innovations that together ensure cleaner and more efficient sea freight. Some key developments include:
Alternative fuels
Shipping companies are increasingly switching to biofuels or synthetic fuels, often made from waste streams. This drastically reduces CO₂ emissions compared to fossil fuels.
More efficient shipping routes and cargo optimization
Through smarter planning and optimal cargo utilization, fuel consumption decreases. This results in lower emissions and often lower costs.
Innovative ship technologies
New ships use hybrid systems, batteries, or even wind power (such as modern sail technology). Especially in ports and on short routes, this provides
CO₂ transparency and reporting
With international standards and tools, companies gain insight into the actual emissions of their transport and the achieved reductions.
Why choose eco-friendly shipping?
For many companies, sustainability has become a strategic priority. This is not only due to social responsibility but also due to changing laws and regulations and the expectations of customers and investors. Eco-friendly shipping offers the opportunity to take concrete steps.
Structural CO₂ reduction
By choosing sustainable fuels or more efficient logistics, you significantly reduce your transport emissions. This helps achieve your own sustainability goals and international climate targets.
Regulatory compliance
Europe and other markets are introducing increasingly strict climate rules for transport and supply chains. With eco-friendly shipping, you’re prepared and avoid fines or restrictions.
Strengthening your brand
Customers and partners increasingly expect companies to take responsibility for their ecological impact. By visibly choosing green solutions, you show that sustainability is a core value.
Future-proof supply chain
Investing in sustainable transport options means not only meeting today’s requirements but also being ready for tomorrow’s developments. Your supply chain becomes more resilient, efficient, and socially responsible.
How Van der Helm offers this?
As your logistics partner, we look beyond just price and speed. Our forwarding department purchases sustainable sea freight capacity from carriers offering eco-friendly solutions. This ensures that you benefit from:
access to proven sustainable sea freight options;
flexible choices suitable for your logistics needs;
support in demonstrating and reporting CO₂ reduction.
Make your supply chain greener
Eco-friendly shipping helps you reduce the ecological impact of your transport without compromising on reliability or service. Curious about which sustainable options suit your organization?
Frequently Asked Questions about Eco-Friendly Shipping
Eco-friendly shipping refers to sustainable transport solutions in ocean freight. This includes alternative fuels, more efficient routes, innovative ship technologies, and CO₂ transparency. The goal is to reduce the environmental impact of transport.
The savings depend on the chosen solution. With biofuels, for example, CO₂ emissions can be reduced by up to 80%, while route and cargo optimization can achieve an average reduction of 20-30%.
Costs vary by solution. Some sustainable options are more expensive but simultaneously lead to lower fuel costs or more efficient space utilization. In the long term, this can actually result in financial benefits.
No. At Van der Helm, our forwarding department handles this for you. We work with shipping companies that offer proven sustainable solutions and ensure your shipment meets the desired sustainability criteria.
In principle, yes. Whether it’s full containers (FCL), less than container load (LCL), or specific cargo flows, there are sustainable alternatives that suit your logistics needs.