In what ways does SKF become part of a smart, safe and emission - compliant future for the maritime industry?
Since the late 1980’s, sustainability has been an important point on the agenda for SKF. Already in 2012, partnering with WWF, we launched SKF BeyondZero products with the intent to calculate our CO2 emissions, to balance the CO2 savings from our products with the emissions from our factories. Since then much has happened.
In October this year we announced our ambitious new targets. We commit to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions from our own operations by 2030. By 2050, our target is to achieve net zero emissions in the full SKF value chain, from raw material to finished product delivered to the customer. For the marine industry we have different customer offers that reduce our environmental footprint. SKF is advancing in tidal power technology. The development of tidal power is supported by the global drive to transition from fossil fuels to more sustainable alternatives. It is intended to help reduce climate-damaging CO2 emissions, slow down global warming and thus build a more sustainable future for generations to come. SKF, together with Orbital Marine Power, developed fully integrated holistic power trains as “plug & play modules”. The 1MW power trains, as used in the Scottish Orbital project, complement the generation of electricity from solar and wind power.
For a safe sea life, SKF has developed a ballast water treatment system, which complies with the IMO requirements and USCG regulations. SKF BlueSonic BWMS treats ballast water to prevent invasive species such as microbes being transferred from one shipping region to another. It works more efficiently than competing systems because the disinfection system operates continuously. At the same time, it offers better environmental performance because it uses no harsh chemicals.
Going forward, we are striving for green steel production at an ambitious scale and speed to offer low carbon emission bearings. Our latest innovation has been to introduce the circular use of oil from SKF Recondoil, where our customers can recondition the oil to use over and over again, hence making a significant decrease of carbon emission. And thirdly, a dedicated research and development team is responsible for the continuous improvement of effective next-level fin stabilizers. We remain in close contact with our customers and their specific needs and challenges to guarantee that new market and environmental requirements can be rapidly realized.
At SKF , we look at what we can truly help the customer with, covering the full range of sustainability and not only CO2 on product material compliance and having good emission data, but actually work in decarbonizing our customers supply chain and operations.
* Managing Director SKF HELLAS SA, Global Marine Accounts & Business Development
The answer was provided for NAFS magazine issue 143 in its special report “WOMEN in SHEPPING”