Awards presented in three categories
In 2014, exactly ten years ago, the Green Focus Award was presented for the very first time. The awards have been presented by bremenports every year since then and have meanwhile become a familiar feature at the ports of Bremen and beyond, guaranteeing an event with “Oscar” factor.
Last night, the suspense of the Oscars was even more evident than usual when the awards were presented in the course of the sustainability conference Envoconnect 2024: for the first time, the winners were announced not only for the “Cleanest Vessel” and the “Cleanest Fleet” to call at the ports of Bremen in the previous year, but also for an individual who had shown exceptional commitment to the topic of ports and sustainability.
120 people had accepted the invitation to the ceremony in Bremerhaven’s climate museum, “Klimahaus”, where they enjoyed an entertaining evening hosted by Marilena Dahlmann and Keno Bergholz, together with bremenports Managing Director Robert Howe.
THE WINNERS:
CLEANEST FLEET:
This year it was a familiar face who stepped out into the spotlight in Bremerhaven: the CMA CGM Group succeeded in defending last year’s title and once again won the award for the cleanest fleet to call at the ports of Bremen last year. “As a global provider of sea, land, air and logistics solutions, CMA CGM has already been investing in decarbonisation for many years and is diversifying its energy mix in order to achieve net zero emissions by the year 2050,” stated bremenports Managing Director Robert Howe at the official presentation of the award to Peter Drake, Chief Operating Officer, Germany Cluster at CMA CGM.
The good performance by the fleet resulted primarily from the use of LNG as fuel: ships calling in Bremerhaven in 2023 included the container vessel Aurora with an ESI score of 89.77, the container vessel Arctic with an ESI score of 87.13 and the container vessel Borealis with an ESI score of 70.11.
Howe concluded that the award ultimately showed that pioneering work – as in the case of CMA CGA – paid off. “The good ESI scores for your fleet confirm the excellent progress you have made and these ultimately serve as the basis for this award. Congratulations.”
CLEANEST VESSEL:
This year’s award for the cleanest vessel went to a ro-ro transporter where the name itself stands for progress: the “Auto Advance”. Operated by Norwegian ro-ro shipping company UECC (United European Car Carriers), the vessel has a length of 169 metres, a beam of 29 metres and can carry 3600 vehicles. She called at Bremerhaven on a total of 10 occasions in 2023, achieving an ESI score of 80.1.
“The Auto Advance has an LNG-battery hybrid propulsion system, so that she achieves excellent emission levels. We are delighted that this award honours our performance and see it as encouragement to continue to opt for a green fleet,” stated Jan Thore Foss, Head of Newbuilding at UECC, who accepted the award together with the ship’s master, Captain Piotr Bartoszewicz. Robert Howe added, “UECC, too, has meanwhile evolved into a key performer in the Green Focus Awards: the shipping company last won the award for the cleanest fleet in 2022, and also received the award for the cleanest vessel in 2018 and again in 2022. Congratulations on succeeding once again this year.”
COMMITMENT:
From around 30 persons who had been nominated for the award by the logistics and port sector, a high-ranking jury finally chose one winner. This was anything but an easy task, said jury spokesperson Saskia Greiner: “We had more than enough suitable candidates, but in the end we all agreed on the same person.”
Robert Howe was entrusted with the task of opening the golden envelope containing that person’s name: “And the winner of the first Green Focus Award in the “Commitment” category is Benjamin Wagner vom Berg,” announced bremenports Managing Director, finally putting an end to the suspense. He praised the jury for its “excellent choice” and informed the audience that Professor Benjamin Wagner vom Berg had worked in Bremerhaven, Bremen and the surrounding region for many years and had close ties with the ports of Bremen through his professorship at the University of Applied Sciences. Howe added, “He is particularly committed to reducing emissions in logistics processes, supervises dissertations in that field, and also initiates and participates in corresponding research and development projects. He made a significant contribution as member of the select committee set up by Bremen’s parliament to achieve Bremen’s climate targets, is an honorary member of the board of the Association of Industrial Engineers for Transportation and – in his spare time, as it were – also actively promotes the inclusion of persons with disabilities. In other words, Professor Wagner is a genuine asset, not only in and around our ports,” said Howe. Wagner himself was delighted to receive the award: “I feel truly honoured and regard the Green Focus Award above all as endorsement for me and my team at the Smart Mobility Institute.“
Information: The Environmental Ship Index (ESI) serves as the basis for identifying the winners of the Green Focus Awards in the categories “Cleanest Fleet” and “Cleanest Vessel”. The ESI is an international standard developed by the major North-West European ports as part of the World Port Climate Initiative. It enables the comparison and evaluation of ship emissions. The ESI breaks down into part scores for nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and carbon dioxide. The ESI score is a figure between 0 and 100, where zero corresponds to the limits specified by the IMO. Scores above zero therefore mean that the vessel outperforms the legal requirements.
