FUTURE SHIPPING TEAM

Around 80% of the world’s goods transported by ship, giving the maritime sector a critical role in decarbonization of the world’s economy. To face this challenge and help clients’ complex projects as they navigate the myriad paths to net zero, Bureau Veritas has created the Future Shipping Team (FST).

The FST is a global, collaborative, diverse and inclusive team that spans the entirety of our organization. The team brings together subject matter experts to coordinate knowledge sharing, research and development across Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore and the wider Group. Leveraging our experience in maritime and the expertise of a TIC leader active in all industry sectors, we aim to support clients that want to challenge the status quo and make future-proof choices on sustainability, technology and innovation.

Our mission

The FST’s mission is to support colleagues, clients and stakeholders in shaping a safer, more sustainable and digitalized shipping industry. We aim to provide greater clarity on crucial sustainability challenges, including a wide range of technology, digital, fuel, and retrofit decisions. We focus on pragmatic and technically viable solutions that will help enable greater fleet efficiency and reduced carbon emissions.

Our workstreams

The FST has developed workstreams covering 15 topics of key importance to maritime decarbonization:

• Nuclear (electricity production and ship propulsion)

• Biofuels

• Ammonia as fuel

• Methanol as fuel

• LNG/LPG as fuel

• Hydrogen and fuel cells

• Electric and hybrid

• IMO & EU regulations

• Onboard carbon capture

• Energy efficiency:
  
  Ship design

  
  Operational excellence

• Wind propulsion

• Future cargo carriers: Liquid H₂, Liquid CO₂

• Data and digitalization

• Sustainable shipbuilding and ship recycling

• ESG services

Our services

To advance sustainability, we support clients with independent expertise that helps build trust between stakeholders throughout supply chains. Our services include:

• Developing relevant classification Rules, as well as training and explanatory materials. 

• Carrying out risk analysis and impact assessment studies.

• Providing fuel certification to verify the sustainability credentials and safety of a given fuel. The multi-fuel era will bring a greater focus on fuel quality and traceability, and this is where our VeriFuel colleagues are playing a critical role as part of the Future Shipping Team.

• Developing guidelines for a “book and claim” system, thereby promoting energy insetting and sending the right market signals to support the uptake and production of alternative fuels.

• Carrying out lifecycle analysis of fuels and assets. This can help shipowners measure the emissions impact of burning new fuels, as well as enable banks and investment funds in assessing whether an asset is truly green or not.

• Supporting digitalization to equip the maritime industry with data-driven insights to help drive lower carbon emissions.

At a wider industry level, we are participating in innovative projects and large-scale partnerships to advance decarbonization in the maritime world.