The Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative (SRTI) brought the global ship recycling community together online through a webinar series that took place between April and June, culminating in an online roundtable event on 9 September 2020.

This year the SRTI has continued to grow with the addition of five new signatories, bringing the total to 26, including our first P&I club Gard as well as shipowners Altera Infrastructure and Evergreen Marine Corporation. In July the SRTI was awarded funding for its further development through the Engineering X Safer End of Engineered Life Mission, an international collaboration founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

The SRTI webinar series brought together a diverse group of stakeholders beyond those able to travel to a face-to-face event, with strong representation from the shipowner and finance communities (see participant breakdown for each webinar).

Webinar participants’ discussions focused on three key themes: data and transparency; circular economy; and the role of financial stakeholders in responsible ship recycling.

We asked webinar participants to identify the single greatest challenge to address in ship recycling today, with most pointing to the still fragmented regulatory landscape.

Facilitated by SRTI Steering Group member Simon Bennett (General Manager – Sustainable Development at The China Navigation Company), the first webinar focused on how data and transparency can drive responsible ship recycling and resulted in a set of inputs for the expansion of the SRTI’s existing disclosure criteria for shipowners (disclosure questionnaire available online following their presentation at the SRTI roundtable).

The circular economy was the topic of the second webinar, seeking to understand how ship recycling fits in a circular approach to the ship lifecycle. Webinar participants agreed on the need for designing and building a vessel with recycling in mind, as well as on the need for accurate data about components and materials aboard in order to ensure that the practical and monetary value of a vessel can be extracted at end of life.

The third webinar focused on the role of financial stakeholders in responsible ship recycling. The SRTI platform shares voluntarily disclosed data to enable banks, investors and insurance companies to make informed decisions and reward good practice through the market. Facilitated by Søren Larsen, Head of ESG at Nykredit, emphasis was placed on the emerging trend of transparency and disclosure. Participants further highlighted the importance of ESG ratings and standard setting agencies incorporating ship recycling, thus highlighting the issue’s materiality.

Moderated by Frances House, Deputy Chief Executive at the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), the final roundtable brought the SRTI community together once again to present the draft expanded shipowner disclosure, reflecting on learnings from the webinar series alongside a panel of industry leaders:

  • Roger Strevens, VP Global Sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen
  • Jennifer Riley-James, Senior Ship Recycling Specialist at Lloyd’s Register
  • Andreas Brachel, VP Head of Environmental Claims at Gard

Thank you to all in the SRTI family who have participated and engaged with us throughout this webinar series – from our Steering Group, to our signatories, to collaborators and other interested stakeholders across the industry.

Watch the roundtable recording below: