Environmentally friendly sea transport

Sea transport has a high priority in achieving national and international climate goals, and Color Line’s sea environmental strategy influences the company’s initiatives.

Shifting transport from roads to sea
Sea transport is considerably more climate and environment friendly than road transport. The EU’s goal is to shift 50 percent of goods transport from road to rail by 2050. The Norwegian authorities have also set ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which involve up to 40 per cent emission reductions from non-quota regulated sectors, where transport is the largest source of emissions.

The report “Climate effects of transferring goods from roads to shipping” (DNV-GL 2016) estimates that almost 30 per cent of all freight transport currently transported from Europe to Norway by road could be transferred to shipping. The National Transport Plan (NTP) for 2018–2027 shows that 5-7 million tonnes of goods currently transported by road could be shifted to shipping or rail.

Color Line - goods transport and the sea environment
Color Line carries a significant proportion of goods by sea transportation between Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, with approximately 175,000 containers or trailers (12 m) a year. The number of trailers on Color Line corresponds to about 23 percent of the freight traffic coming to Norway by road across Svinesund.

Color Line is an important player in sea transport and an accelerator in the development of modern and future oriented ocean shipping, with daily scheduled departures between 7 ports in Norway, Denmark, Germany and Sweden. The company has adopted the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association’s vision of zero emissions of damaging substances to the air or water and is working strategically and resolutely on environmentally friendly solutions.

Climate friendly technology and new ships
By 2017, the company has invested around NOK 200 million in environmental measures, including onshore power in all the ports used by Color Line and scrubber solutions on all new ships.

Onshore power systems
The company has been a driving force in establishing onshore power systems in Norwegian ports, together with the port authorities and an instrument apparatus including ENOVA and the environmental organizations. Color Line has been a partner of Bellona for many years. The first onshore system for high-voltage electricity was installed in Oslo in October 2011. In 2014, onshore electricity was established in Kristiansand, in Larvik in 2016, in Sandefjord in 2017 and in Kiel in 2019.

Overall, including Kiel, annual CO2 emissions are reduced by around 10,000 tonnes. The local environment has also been protected from large point emissions of NOx,SOx and particles, as well as significant noise reduction during docking of ships.

Next Generation Ship Award for environmentally friendly ships
During the opening ceremony of Nor-Shipping in 2017, H.R.H Crown Prince Haakon presented the Next Generation Ship Award to Ulstein Verft and Color Line. The prince praised the most promising ship design to be launched in the next ten years. The jury’s statement was that Color Line demonstrates innovation and ambition that will leads the maritime industry further towards a greener, more profitable and more sustainable future in sea shipping and transportation.

Color Hybrid will be the world’s largest plug-in hybrid ship built by Ulstein Shipyard. The new ship will insert for sea transportation and shipping on the Sandefjord - Strømstad route in summer 2019. The ship has a capacity of 500 cars and 2,000 passengers.

The batteries are charged via the onshore power system in Sandefjord as well as via special generators on board. The ship will travel into and out of the fjord at Sandefjord on battery power. This means that no harmful greenhouse gases or nitrogen and sulphur compounds are emitted into the atmosphere of the area. The ship will also make use of new noise reduction solutions. External noise at low speed measured 100 metres from the vessel will be far less than the noise of a normal conversation.