First Carbon Credits Awarded for Ship Efficiency

Paint manufacturer AkzoNobel has pioneered a carbon credits program for shipowners using its low-drag bottom coatings – and on Wednesday, it announced its first award. 

Costas Mitropoulos, Technical Director at Neda Maritime Agency, a Greek tanker and bulker owner, accepted the award of over 13,000 carbon credits from AkzoNobel representative Carlos Soler. The credits stem from Neda's decision to use fuel-saving hull coatings on the tanker vessel Argenta, and are worth up to $60,000. Neda says that it will use them to offset its other CO2 emissions. 

"We are extremely proud to be the world's first ship owner to receive carbon credits from AkzoNobel's initiative," said Mitropoulos. "As the shipping industry faces more pressure to improve its sustainability, we will also continue our commitment to further increase our environmental performance. We see AkzoNobel’s pioneering carbon credits initiative as a key part of our strategy to deliver a more sustainable, profitable and ultimately successful business." 

Each carbon credit represents the removal of one ton of CO2 emissions, which means the company has offset a total of 13,000 tons of CO2 from its business. 

Oscar Wezenbeek, managing director for AkzoNobel's Marine Coatings business, said that "this is a landmark moment for . . . the wider shipping industry. It demonstrates how our carbon credits initiative can incentivize investment in more sustainable practices, accelerating carbon reduction within the shipping industry, and enabling owners to gain from operational, environmental and  bottom line benefits from clean technologies." 

The credits were developed with the Gold Standard Foundation, and beyond the award to Neda, AkzoNobel intends to distribute over 100,000 additional credits for 15 other vessels – with more to come as enrollment rises. The vessels in the program reportedly saved an average of more than 1,000 tons of fuel each last year through the use of its coatings, the company says.