photo: Bundesautobahn (Flickr CC)

The global shipping industry produces 3 billion metric tons of carbon emissions every year. That’s as much CO2 as the combined output of Japan, Canada, Mexico and Germany.

Greenhouse gas emissions from freight are a serious problem, but there are examples of alternative technology. One that is probably more familiar to most of us is the use of overhead electric cables, like the ones used to power tram lines or trolleybuses. Freight trucks could be powered in the same way.

In Brandenburg, Germany a project that uses such a method is being field tested.

From Deutsche Welle:

Freight trucks with electric motors connected to an overhead cable have more traction. They also have no direct emission and don’t have to carry the energy along with them.

–Bert Leerkamp, traffic engineer, Bergischen University, Wuppertal

Another, more ‘out there’ solution being proposed is the use of solar powered airships instead of the standard freight methods of rail, road, air and boat. Freight-carrying airships would travel at a height of 9,000 meters where photovoltaic solar panels are 30% more efficient than on the ground.

See this cool video animation from Al Jazeera English for more:

photo by tyler_haglund (Flickr CC)

But freight companies are also developing and implementing ways to become more energy efficient and lower their emissions. Danish shipping giant Maersk has ordered 10 new mega ships (with an option for 20 more) to be used between China and Europe. These floating blocks of skyscrapers can carry 20% more than the largest freighters currently at sea and are too big to be used at ports in the Americas.

Ocean freight has largely “flown” under the radar in terms of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but reports in recent years have shown the industry to be a huge emitter – each mega ship emits about as much as a small developing country. This attention has helped to spur Maersk to invest in fuel saving and emissions reduction:

We have rethought the whole ship. We are setting a new bar, or standard. These ships will operate at fuel consumption of 50% less than the industry average and 20% better than the existing best. They will travel at 19 knots (21.8mph) rather than 23 knots (26.5mph) and the emissions will be 50% less [per container]. The ships could travel even slower but you reach a point when transit time becomes an issue.

–Maersk chief executive officer Eivind Kolding (quoted in the Guardian)

Though improvements are welcome, pollution from diesel engines is poorly regulated in Europe and in international waters, and the technology to make ocean freight sustainable is still lacking. Nonetheless more ships will be hauling more goods from China to Europe, increasing trade and overall emissions.

Read more on the story in the Guardian.

In the meantime, Europe’s rail and road freight are doing a bit of super-sizing themselves. Trucks are getting bigger and tunnels are being drilled through the Swiss Alps to facilitate train routes.

Though the Gottard tunnel has plenty of environmental impact of its own (pollution, massive water consumption, waste rock) it may end up halving the amount of road freight traveling through the Alps. The trains would actually haul trucks through the Gottard tunnel. Rail produces only 1/12 of the emissions of trucks, and Switzerland is already a clear leader in rail freight for the region.

Click below to watch a video report from France 24 on the environmental pros and cons of Europe’s freight development, including the introduction of mega trucks in Norway.

Toxicity of transport

photo by stooart (Flickr CC)

The UK’s chief environmental scientist has stated that Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions have actually increased in the last 20 years due to ‘hidden’ emissions in imported goods.

Since last year, China has been labeled the number one emitter of greenhouse gases, though it is the West that fuels much of China’s emissions by importing so much from the rapidly developing Asian super power.

From a report in the Guardian:

Speaking in a documentary to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 next week, Professor Bob Watson said there was a need to be more open about the rises in emissions generated by-products made in places such as China but destined for the UK market.

Rather than an apparent reduction of 15-16% over the past two decades – or 22% according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change – Professor Watson claims that emissions have actually gone up by 12% when factoring in imports.

Importing so many goods not only means the exporting of manufacturing jobs, but also an effective export of greenhouse gases and an increase in emissions from shipping.

In related news, UK biofuels are not as green as hoped in terms of voluntary standards, though they are meeting legal quotas of how much biofuel is sold in relation to total transport fuel sales.

Figures released by the RFA show that just 33% of biofuels met an environmental standard, well short of the 50% goal for 2009/10. About 80% of the feedstock to produce the biofuels was imported, most of which was not subject to meeting an environmental standard.

As far as direct carbon emissions, biofuels in the UK are exceeding their goals by cutting carbon by 51% compared to petrol or diesel. Yet this statistic does not factor in land use, habitat destruction or deforestation, which may be indirectly caused by farming crops to produce biofuels.

Read more in the following report from the BBC:

UK biofuels ‘falling short’ on environmental standards

photo by kqedquest (Flickr Creative Commons)

I’ve assumed that transport via boat, whether shipping goods or people, is less polluting and has a lower carbon footprint than flying or road freight, for example. Not so, according to both scientific research and inside information from the maritime shipping industry.

While diesel cars – once known as smelly, noisy polluters – have relatively cleaned up their act to the level of standard petrol or gasoline-fuelled cars, the heavy-duty diesel and low-grade fuel oil engines that power ships are a scourge on the environment and human health.

From an article in the Economist:

Research by James Corbett of the University of Delaware estimates that soot from ships’ diesels contributes to 60,000 deaths from and lung disease every year. Dirty ships’ diesels also produce oxides of nitrogen—the main ingredient of smog.

It is estimated that cargo ships currently produce 30% of the world’s nitrogen-oxide emissions.

But there may be a partial solution – and it’s as simple as H2O. Experiments have shown that mixing water with diesel and adding a surfactant – which prevents the oil and water from separating – eliminates soot and reduces nitrogen-oxide emissions by up to 80%.

Successful implementation of this technology, along with the new air quality standards in both Europe and the US, would be good news for both the environment and world health. According to an article in the Guardian from last year, a US study has shown that pollution from the world’s 90,000 cargo ships causes 60,000 deaths annually in that country alone and ‘$330bn (€260bn) per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases’. A Danish government study claims it costs Denmark £5bn (€6bn) per annum in health costs and .1% of Danes to die prematurely each year.

Confidential data from maritime industry insiders based on engine size and the quality of fuel typically used by ships and cars shows that just 15 of the world’s biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world’s 760m cars.

–Guardian

That’s over 50 million cars per big ship.

Graham Land

Additional resources:

Treehugger – Could we Clean Up Air Pollution from Cargo Ships with… H2O?!

Image source: treehugger.com

For years, shipping containers have been used to send a variety of items via train, boat and aircraft. But now, more and more people are beginning to see them as a living and design space, rather than as a mere cargo holding box.

The most recent prototype is being introduced in Buenos Aires, Brazil, at the Casa FOA Exhibition. This latest shipping container home comes with 4 “rooms” plus a roof terrace. A couple of the rooms even include secret features, such as a hidden office below a retractable bed and a separating wall that hides a wardrobe. Also included with this prototype are LED lights, a small solar panel on the roof, and wood from sustainably managed forests.

Not only used as home structures, the shipping container idea has also been put to use for college dorms, hotels, and businesses. Last month, it was announced that New York’s Pier 57 will be transformed into a multi-shipping container structure consisting of a rooftop park, open markets and art studios. Designed by LOT-EK and developer YoungWoo, Pier 57’s remodeling will preserve green space and reduce vehicular transportation, without losing sight of its industrial past. A 90,000 square foot “Underwater Discovery Center” has also been proposed for this venture.

Shipping containers are catching the eye of architects, artists and green designers more and more, due to being sturdy structures that can be reused in numerous ways. For a fraction of the cost, labor and resources it takes to build homes or offices by conventional means, shipping containers provide versatility in the ways they can be stacked, restructured, and easily designed for living an eco-friendly lifestyle. One example of this is the Ecopod: a completely transportable, off-the-grid shipping container home. With floors made of recycled rubber, a solar powered fridge, and (optional) composting toilet, you can’t get more eco-friendly than this.

The idea of using shipping containers for a variety of structures is slowly taking the world by storm. Most of the single container homes are also reasonably priced, and an extreme bargain in the real estate market these days. I don’t know if we’ll ever end up living in homes like they had on The Jetsons, but I think with the creation of Push-Button homes, we are certainly well on our way.

By Heidi Marshall