Netherlands-based digital solutions provider PortXchange has become the first shipping software company to join The Climate Pledge, an initiative co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism.
The scheme calls on companies and organisations across the world to be net zero carbon across their business by the year 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris agreement.
The Dutch company has already made a public commitment to the environment prior to this agreement, in 2020, by building digital solutions that support decarbonisation.
“Joining the Climate Pledge was a logistical extension to what we do, as we really believe we can turn the climate crisis into climate action,” said Sjoerd de Jager, Managing Director of PortXchange.
“As the first shipping technology company to join the pledge, we aim to take a leadership role by promoting digitalisation and decarbonisation amongst our shipping partners, such as port authorities and the cities they serve. We want to inspire a movement of shipping businesses looking to do the same.”
According to a statement from PortXchange, their main aim after signing this agreement is to support its customers to reduce emissions and improve efficiency by developing digital tools that can be scaled across ports globally.
As part of the pledge, the company agrees to:
- Measure and report GHG emissions on a regular basis.
- Implement decarbonisation strategies in line with the Paris agreement through real business changes and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies.
- Neutralise any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.
PortXchange have already acted on these commitments through:
- Preparing an annual footprint analysis.
- Implementing a travel policy where they attend online international meetings and conferences as much as possible.
- Implementing Travelperk, a business travel platform, which features Greenperk that advises on the most environmentally friendly travel mode and lets the company offset 100% of the carbon emissions generated during business travel automatically through its platform on a per-trip basis.
One other way that PortXchange have been working towards reducing emissions in the shipping industry is by partnering alongside ports in Algeciras and Houston to trial a new optimisation solution. In March 2021, trials for the solution were wrapped up and shortly after the company began inviting other parties to work alongside them on this project.
