BIMCO has joined a consortium with a vision to reduce the shipping industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by optimising vessel arrival times.

The Blue Visby Consortium comprises 15 organisations from industry, government, NGOs and academia. It has a vision to reduce emissions by 15%.

The organisations work together through Blue Visby Solution, a platform that aims to optimise ships’ arrival times at their destinations by eradicating a practice it calls “sail fast then wait’”. 

BIMCO said the platform applies an algorithm to arrival times of groups of ships bound for the same destination to give an optimal target arrival time for each ship. 

It analyses parameters such as the performance of each ship and conditions including weather and congestion at the destination. 

Grant Hunter, director, standards, innovation and research at BIMCO, said the organisation encourages practical solutions to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the supply chain through operational measures. 

“Such measures include speed optimisation that supports the use of the ‘just-in-time’ principle to convert waiting time at ports into sailing time,” Mr Hunter said. 

“The aims of the Blue Visby Solution match BIMCO’s mission to help facilitate digitalisation and decarbonisation.”