Brian Ladin Explains How Carbon Offsets Reduce Shipping’s Carbon Footprint
Brian Ladin, founder of Delos Shipping, is helping the shipping industry shift their investment mentality towards more sustainable, environmentally friendly shipping practices. This is done by shipping companies and merchants that deal with shipping companies using vessels that run off of petroleum-electric hybrids or full electricity.
Because it takes time to convert the majority of today’s shipping industry from petroleum to electricity, these businesses can look to other ways to offset carbon emissions.
What is a Carbon Footprint?
Nearly everything that humans do to support their way of life gives off greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are those that enter the air and retain heat within the earth’s atmosphere. When greenhouse gas emissions are moderate, there is little concern. However, with the most significant emission (accounting for over 80% of all greenhouse gases) coming from carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of civilization’s use of fossil fuels, reducing one’s carbon footprint has become a priority.
Brian Ladin explains that one’s carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide that one’s activities generate. For individuals, reducing one’s carbon footprint looks like recycling, installing solar panels on the home, or conserving natural resources. For an organization, this means taking stock of each part of their production and logistics to find ways to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
What are Carbon Offset Credits?
Organizations that take stock of their carbon emissions, such as Delos Shipping, are committed to finding ways to reduce their carbon footprint. One of the ways that Brian Ladin does this is by using carbon offset credits and encouraging other organizations to do so.
For the amount of carbon emissions that a company’s shipping produces, that company will invest financial resources (credits) in projects that reduce an equal amount of greenhouse gases, thus offsetting those carbon emissions. In effect, Brian Ladin’s efforts to purchase carbon offset credits essentially cancels out his own shipping company’s carbon emissions. The end result is that his company becomes carbon neutral.
What is the Shipping Industry’s Carbon Footprint?
Incidentally, simply going carbon neutral is not enough for Brian Laden. He is passionate about the shipping industry’s push to cut greenhouse gas emissions from ships in half by 2050. The next step for shipping vessels worldwide is to convert from petroleum to electric-powered shipping.
Currently, ships pose one of the most significant dangers to the environment. One ship can produce “as much CO2 as 70,000 cars, as much nitrogen oxide as 2 million cars, and as much fine dust and carcinogenic particles as 2.5 million cars.” As a result, the International Maritime Organization requires that all ships log their petroleum use. This will help the UN enforce its initiative to significantly reduce the shipping industry’s carbon footprint over the next several years and decades.
Thankfully, Brian Ladin concludes that ship builders have already begun designing pure electric ships and hybrids. Many ships have converted to a diesel-electric drive and may easily progress to adding the necessary battery power to become fully hybrid. This upgrade, along with leading ship engine designers’ ambition to produce fleets of 100% electric vessels, should contribute significantly to the earth’s fight against global warming.
