To Achieve Greener Shipping, "There's an App for That"

As part of a R&D project, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) has investigated the influence of the behavioral change of individual seafarers on carbon emissions on selected ships managed by BSM Deutschland (BSMD). 

Using clean-tech start-up Signol’s app, BSM reports that "remarkable reductions in bunker fuel consumption" were detected on single ships.

During the research project, which ran in the second half of 2021, 60 Masters and Chief Engineers on 28 vessels under full management of BSMD were invited to take part in the trial on a voluntary basis. During this time, each participating crew member received individualied targets via the Signol app which are calculated based on the seafarer’s prior performance. Every week, the participating seafarers received updates on their personal milestones and achievements via the app and email. Through a combination of fair targets and positive feedback, Signol "gently nudged" individual Masters and Chief Engineers to implement fuel-saving practices.

According to BSM, the analysis of the pilot tests revealed promising results which need to be verified by further tests. The R&D project proved that seafarers can be nudged and become aware of their individual influence on major challenges.

“I am pleased with the overall outcome of the pilot project as it proved our hypothesis that seafarers are not only important key workers, but also play a valuable role in the decarbonization of the shipping industry," said Nick Topham, Managing Director of BSM Deutschland. "We are impressed by the individual efforts of all participating Captains and Chief Engineers to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. In the long run, it can provide a great added value to our owners and charterers’ operations, and to the achievement of climate targets."