Maersk, Svitzer Ready to Rollout Ecofloat 1.0

Digital training course designed for maritime industry

Copenhagen, Denmark—Oct. 17, 2011—Ecofloat 1.0 is a new, engaging and fully interactive digital training course specifically designed for the maritime industry, and is set to reduce fuel bills by over 15 percent. Svitzer Australia, a subsidiary of Maersk, is the first to take delivery of Ecofloat which will be deployed in port facilities across the country as a commercial pilot, before a more complete rollout is planned.

Gary Vink, engineering manager for Maersk said: “I’m really impressed with Ecofloat 1.0, the visuals, the content, and specifically the way the lessons build up before the final summary. We expect this will have a tangible effect with our crews, as part of the nationwide efforts to save fuel and carbon emissions.”

Ecofloat users are taken through 10 specific lessons with highly immersive and compelling exercises focused on Tug operation specifics such as speed and acceleration, using tide and current and planning ahead, as well as setting out practical steps to reduce fuel costs and carbon emissions via idling time and generator load. 

The keystone of Ecofloat 1.0 is behavior change any through a series of cognitive adjustments by doing real exercises which set the stage for “learning by figuring out” the behaviour change is bedded-in and remains a part of the job and responsibility for the longer term.

Key benefits of Ecofloat

  • Cost Savings: Reducing fuel consumption through behavioural change in Tug operators can cut a business' fuel bill by over 15 percent.
  • Reduce GHG Emissions: Mitigating carbon pollution by enhancing operating behavior will cut dangerous emissions.
  • Compliance with Legislation: Legislation institutes a legal imperative to report and mitigate carbon emissions: Ecofloat represents an opportunity for a low cost, practical achievement of these goals.
  • Engaging Staff: The program helps staff members feel part of your eco-sustainability solution, not part of the problem - boosting morale leads to longer term commitment.

Sustainability is good for the economy, according to new research from data publishing site Ecodesk that reveals businesses could save billions of dollars annually from measuring and managing a carbon footprint. “If you extrapolate this single measurement/efficiency project across the maritime sector in, the cost savings run into tens of billions of dollars,” says Ecodesk CEO Robert Clarke.

“Maritime companies like Maersk, BP, Mitsui and Hanjin are making huge savings by undertaking sustainability strategy. It starts with measuring energy and carbon emissions, which gives a whole new set of metrics to run cost efficiencies into modelling programs. We have discovered literally thousands of companies worldwide making savings through efficiency programs like Ecofloat”

“Ecodesk.com supports all the most prominent standards of excellence and actively promote BSI, GRI, WRI in their efforts to provide strong measurement criteria,” Clarke adds. “This is not about throw away words such as ‘green’ and ‘environmentally friendly’—the sustainability industry has grown up and moved into hard economics. This is about having a strong business case to use sustainability to cut costs. Good environmental stewardship is a natural product of this firm foundation.”

For more information on individual company carbon data use the search function at www.ecodesk.com

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