Swire Shipping, a leading provider of sustainable and innovative shipping and logistics solutions, has published its Sustainability Report, which details its goals and achievements in the areas of sustainability and decarbonisation for the calendar year 2022. The Company’s sustainability strategy provides the framework and structure to ensure that it meets its sustainability commitments across Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) areas, and the progress made on achieving such targets is reported each year. In 2022, key priorities have been identified based on the material sustainability and decarbonisation topics which drive long-term value for Swire Shipping’s business and stakeholders, and alongside the short-, medium-, and long-term targets developed to step up the Company’s ambitions and measure performance.
“Our sustainability strategy centres around three core pillars – Thriving Environment, Thriving People, Thriving Partners – and is a mark of commitment to creating a more sustainable future for our stakeholders, customers, employees, and the communities we serve. Driven by targets closely aligned with our business strategy, and with several of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it encompasses all the areas where we feel we can make the most difference, including our efforts to champion the role of women in maritime, work collaboratively with our internal teams and external partners to continuously improve safety standards across all areas of our operations, and support the communities and natural habitat of the Pacific Islands,” said Jeremy Sutton, Managing Director of Swire Shipping.
In 2022, Swire Shipping received recognition for its sustainability efforts and display of good corporate governance, having been conferred the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Award at the Seatrade Maritime Awards 2022, one of the most prestigious global award programmes in the maritime industry; as well as a Silver Medal from EcoVadis, the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings. We have detailed some highlights from Swire Shipping’s Sustainability Report 2022 in Appendix A below.
Swire Shipping’s annual Sustainability Reports keep stakeholders informed of its sustainability progress in an open and transparent manner. The 2022 Sustainability Report has been externally assured against the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards 2021.
Sustainability remains central to Swire Shipping’s business strategy, as reflected in its vision statement: to be the leading provider of safe, sustainable, innovative supply chain solutions and our customers’ partner of choice. The Company will continue working with its customers, peers, suppliers and communities towards a more sustainable future.
Read Swire Shipping’s Sustainability Report 2022 in full on our corporate website.
Appendix A: Highlights from Swire Shipping’s Sustainability Report 2022:
• Thriving Environment
- A Decarbonisation Roadmap has been developed with short-, medium- and long-term targets to decarbonise vessel operations.
- Swire Shipping has a target of Net Zero GHG emissions by 2050 and the adoption of near zero emission fuels in its operated fleet.
- Carbon intensity performance at the end of 2022 was 11% below the annual target.
- A 64.69% year-on-year reduction in Single-Use Plastic (SUP) water bottles consumed across Swire Shipping’s owned fleet was achieved, bringing the overall reduction in SUP water bottles used on board to 99.67% between 2018 and 31 December 2022.
• Thriving People
- Long-term preventive measures are in place to improve fleet safety, and the Company continues to work closely with its stevedoring partners and other third-party contractors to improve safety in cargo operations (i.e. its SafeWOW Programmes have been extended to another five stevedoring partners in 2022).
- The Company has set KPIs of achieving increased gender diversity at sea and in the offices. At the end of 2022, 4.3% were female seafarers (Target: 10% by 2026) and 21.8% were female senior managers (Target: 30% by 2025).
- 217 long service awards were issued to employees ashore and at sea, for lengths ranging from 10 to 30 years, a testament to the company’s ambition to be an Employer of Choice.
• Thriving Partners
- More than 1,100 tonnes of recyclable waste have been shipped out of the Pacific Islands under the Moana Taka Partnership since 2018.
- Swire Shipping has supported over 100,000 beneficiaries in key stakeholder committees through Corporate Philanthropy initiatives.
- Westwood Shipping Lines Inc. (a subsidiary of Swire Shipping) received the Blue Circle Award from the Port of Vancouver for the 14th year running; Swire Shipping received the Sapphire recognition tier for four years in a row in the Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies programme in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Southern California Region.
