S6 Ep9: Haris Zografakis, Co-ordinator, Blue Visby Consortium

In this episode, we find out more about the results of the first commercial deployment of Blue Visby, which aims to end the practice of ‘sail fast then wait’ and thereby reduce shipping’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Led by CBH Group, a Western Australian co-operative of grain growers, the first few months of operations saw emissions avoided of about 15%, which is consistent with results from earlier prototype trials, and what was modelled by digital twin pilots before that.Blue Visby achieved those emissions savings by giving each ship’s captains an optimal time of arrival that keeps their place in the queue and allows them to slow down, reducing their fuel consumption, and arrive when their berth is ready. In this conversation, the coordinator of Blue Visby, Haris Zografakis, reflects on whether similar emissions savings could be replicated elsewhere.He discusses the scaling up potential of Blue Visby, and the consortium’s plans to deploy the system in more commercial settings, including the Panama Canal and the ports of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and Newcastle, in Australia. He insists on the importance for any decarbonisation solution to be ‘commercially palatable’ to enable their uptake by the industry. He explains how Blue Visby’s contractual arrangements aim to neutralise ‘split incentives’ by which some parties benefit financially from ‘sail fast then wait’ (SFTW) because they can claim demurrage. Nearly three years after the Blue Visby consortium was launched, Haris estimates that there has been progress in industry awareness and willingness to accept new ways of working – and he believes that shipping’s decarbonisation transition will only increase the urgency to solve SFTW.