Integrated approach to vessel energy efficiency

Energy efficiency improvements in the shipping industry are being driven by economics, compliance and customer requirements. Whilst various technological and operation improvements are known and available, with many being demonstrated to be cost effective and with savings reported in the industry, their take up in the world fleet remains low. This low take-up can be considered due to many different barriers, as explored in various research studies. However the aim of this paper is first to understand how these barriers are created by considering how ship operations function day-to-day within the context of mainstream business practice. A holistic view of operations is required and is presented in this paper, including consideration of business focus areas in parallel with the functions of technical, operational and commercial stakeholders. With this laid-out, gaps within existing operations are discussed in relation to areas for practical improvements. From here, non-prescriptive mechanisms to enable a desired future are proposed; including the integration of mandates, processes and systems. Case studies are given throughout the paper using hull and propeller maintenance as a recurring example of a typical decision making processes and best practices. (c) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license