Germany’s container shipping major Hapag-Lloyd has won the first tender launched by Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA). Starting in 2025, it will deliver greenhouse gas emissions reduction of over 90% as compared to fossil fuel service to ZEMBA members.
On April 16, 2024, ZEMBA announced the successful conclusion of its first tender for ocean shipping that achieves at least a 90% reduction of greenhouse gases on a lifecycle basis relative to fossil fuel-powered service.
Through this deal, more than a dozen ZEMBA members including founding members Amazon, Patagonia, and Tchibo alongside Bauhaus, Brooks Running, DB Journey, Green Worldwide Shipping, lululemon, Meta, New Balance, Nike, REI Co-op, and Sport-Thieme have collectively committed to purchase the environmental attributes associated with over 1 billion twenty-foot shipping container-miles of zero-emission shipping on a route from Singapore to Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2025-2026 .
A number of ZEMBA members and Hapag-Lloyd are working with the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping and RMI on the development of a best-in-class, nonprofit maritime book and claim system, which is intended to allow companies to invest in the zero-emission transition and appropriately claim the environmental benefits without interrupting logistics flows essential to the global economy.
The results from ZEMBA’s tender process will also provide real-world insights to inform the development of an ambitious global maritime decarbonization policy. In the coming months, the Aspen Institute, which serves as secretariate for ZEMBA, will work with cargo owners to convey lessons learned from ZEMBA’s tender process to support the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) development of robust lifecycle assessment guidelines and mid-term measures that are credible, transparent, verifiable, and create a level playing field for climate leaders across the value chain.