Sea freight at OTTO: More biofuel for less emissions

Hey Gesa and Tina, biofuel made from waste instead of oil and diesel, that sounds like an image boost. How much CO2 saving potential does this really have?

Gesa Beckmann: First, we are not only talking about CO2, but also about emissions such as dioxides and fine dust. Basically, GoodShipping's biofuels save up to 90 % of CO2 emissions compared to fossil fuels such as marine diesel. At OTTO, with more than 75 %, sea freight is by far the largest part of long-distance transports today. And it is still growing, as our share of air freight has already dropped to less than 2 % and will continue to fall. The potential of this cooperation is therefore huge.

More specifically, what does that mean for OTTO?

Gesa: Over the current business year, we are raising the biofuel share of our sea freight to 15 %. Calculated in a conservative way, this will save us at least 700,000 kilograms of CO2.

Tina, at GoodShipping you want to reduce carbon emissions from shipping. How?

Tina Trinks: Our goal is to decarbonize the shipping industry. We do this by offering our customers the possibility to reduce their scope 3 emissions from transporting their goods, by providing a carbon insetting service. GoodShipping facilitates a fuel switch from conventional fossil fuels to truly sustainable biofuels. This means that we reduce CO2 emissions directly where they are produced: in the supply chain and specifically in sea freight. Cargo owners originally had no say in the type of fuel that their products are being shipped on, which is where insetting comes in as a solution. With that being said, we couldn’t do this alone. It is about bringing the entire industry together and not just talking, but truly taking actionable steps to decarbonise. We need the combined efforts of big corporates, NGOs, and regulations to drive industry change towards a better world.

And now you are standing at the port's petrol station every day?

Tina: Well, as much as we love being on-site as cargo ships are bunkered with biofuel, it doesn’t always work out that way. The refueling is done by our sister company GoodFuels with its barges, in which biofuel is stored. As soon as a ship owner orders biofuel, the barge heads to the cargo ship and starts refueling.

So how does this work from a logistical point of view?

Tina: We can’t bunker every vessel which transports our customers goods, this is just not possible. At GoodShipping, we recognize that we’re all living under one atmosphere, so a reduction in carbon emissions from any vessel will benefit our climate. This is why our concept is based on the mass-balance principle, which allows us to facilitate the bunkering of one ship at one time in the most efficient and sustainable way. You might know this from eco-power: even if a customer doesn't know whether the electricity that just comes out of the plug was generated directly from renewable energies or not, the share of eco-power in the overall network still increases. That's exactly what we do with the biofuels purchased by OTTO: we use them to refuel ships, no matter if they are carrying OTTO goods or not.

So how does this reduces OTTO’s emissions?

Tina: We want to change the shipping industry and accelerate the energy transition, that is our goal. So what matters is that overall, globally seen, more ships are using biofuel. The biofuels purchased by OTTO also reduces CO2 emissions on every other high sea vessel – and can therefore still be positively counted for OTTO, because they put it in the system. So OTTO’s efforts will therefore reduce the amount of CO2 emitted during the transportation of goods. The reduction is audited and certified by an independent third party.

When talking about biofuels, what exactly is it?

Tina: We only use biofuels that has been certified by the leading systems worldwide. They consist exclusively of raw materials that are also certified and labelled as waste or residues, such as used cooking oils. There are no land use problems, no competition with food production and no deforestation.

Can biofuels completely replace conventional marine diesel, or will it destroy ship engines in the long run?

Tina: Modern ships are easily able to run on 100 % biofuel. Technical adjustments, for example to the engines, are not necessary.

But why is so much fossil fuel still being used?

Gesa: Switching to biofuels is always a question of cost, for the simple reason that biofuel is more expensive than conventional ones. Our cooperation with GoodShipping is just one of our several climate protection projects. We are also working to avoid or at least reduce emissions in other parts of our supply chain, like parcel delivery. This will also require resources, and as you know, money is limited, even for us. We cannot change absolutely everything at once, but we are on the right track. And we are overall highly motived to become better and better.

Do you plan to further increase the share of biofuel in sea freight?

Gesa: Maybe. But first, we need to get the current activities up and running. If we succeed in reducing sea freight emissions by 15 % over the next 12 months, as planned, we have already taken a huge step in the right direction.