Recouping additional costs Van Heiningen clarifies: “An inland shipping entrepreneur can come to us for certificates issued in accordance with the Smart Freight Centre’s methodology. These certificates can be managed and sold through our platform, helping them recover the additional costs of the ship. They can market these reductions flexibly worldwide, seeking interested buyers for the reduction.”
Rik Arends, Smart Freight Centre
Setting the standard Within this foundation, several activities are central. For instance, the Smart Freight Centre is the international standard-setter for calculating actual CO₂ emissions. Arends explains: “When someone orders a package from, say,
bol.com, what is the exact CO₂ footprint? We set the standard, provide access to the data, communicate about it, train companies in complying with these standards, and develop new initiatives. All of this is aimed at ensuring the emissions from the logistics process drop to zero.”
The foundation was established in 2013, and when asked about the current state of the industry, Arends responds: “Everyone is aware of logistics emissions. Shippers are indirectly responsible for achieving the stipulated reductions. Technology is currently maturing, and the key question now is: how can this be scaled? In the context of RH₂INE: how do you ensure those hydrogen- powered ships are built? How will this be financed?”
According to Arends, there are two main drivers: the regulatory framework, or the regulated market. “This concerns achieving emissions reductions mandated by law. Then there is the voluntary market, the market-based measures. This market is willing to pay extra for additional emission reductions, driven by customer demand or brand image. Our standards stem from this.”
It is crucial for companies to be able to legitimately claim the reduced CO₂ emissions. For this, they receive a digital certificate. The rules for these certificates are established by the Smart Freight Centre.
These rules include: • Compliance with the additionality requirement: the reduction must exceed legally mandated levels to qualify for a certificate;
• The fuel must actually have been consumed; • The certificate can only be sold once and not to multiple parties; • CO₂ emissions must be calculated in accordance with the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) Framework.
He cites Nike as an example: suppose the company has hundred containers on a hydrogen-powered ship, while a total of thousand containers are being transported via inland shipping. “In this case, Nike can purchase certificates for the containers that could not be physically transported sustainably, sourced from another inland shipping vessel. This creates immense scalability.”
This approach separates the physical transport of goods from their emission profiles, enabling shippers to claim that the logistics portion of their product was conducted with zero emissions.
Van Heiningen also mentions Tata Steel: “For them, inland shipping accounts for only about 5 percent of their transport. This could easily be enough to support two or three hydrogen-powered ships. If Tata Steel were to secure this volume with Future Proof Shipping, they might be able to deploy three hydrogen-powered ships. We facilitate these deals and ensure financing is available for the shipping entrepreneur with a contract underpinning it. This makes it easier to finalize such deals.”
Financing According to Van Heiningen, trading these emission reductions removes many barriers. “We essentially say: everyone can now purchase hydrogen in inland shipping. However, one must, of course, be willing to pay for it and enter into a contract. If an inland shipping entrepreneur can show the bank that they have a contract guaranteeing that the customer will purchase a certain amount, they will receive a loan more quickly to finance the additional costs of their ship. At present, it often takes a lot of effort to get precisely these costs financed.” The principle of the certificates is relatively new and originates from the well-known ‘green energy principle’.
According to the founder of 123Carbon, the inland shipping sector can be seen as a kind of grid or infrastructure, with all similar ships operating more or less on the same fuel. Whoever makes part of that infrastructure more sustainable records that in a certificate, which someone else can then redeem elsewhere.
For 123Carbon, this is the first inland shipping project. Step one was ensuring that the certificates could be created in a proper, transparent way, with everything in order and of high quality. The next step is developing a service that connects shippers to the inland shipping sector. This, according to Van Heiningen, is quite challenging.
30 • RH2INE
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