Environmental Ethics and Sustainability at Sea
Global warming, ocean acidification, rising sea levels and shifting weather patterns are all ramifications of climate change. These consequences create a strategic vulnerability in the supply chain, making it increasingly difficult to remain operationally effective.
It is a dual challenge for the maritime industry: mitigate and adapt - quickly. To mitigate the impact that the maritime industry is having on the climate. And adapt, changes to weather patterns and events, global temperatures, and changing ocean conditions, are going to continue to occur, increasing in both frequency and intensity of change, regardless of mitigation efforts. The maritime industry must therefore begin to adapt now to mitigate risk and maintain stability in the supply chain and remain operationally effective.
The primary methods to building climate change resilience are visibility, flexibility and circularity of the supply chain. Visibility is required to identify how we can determine and reduce current strategic vulnerabilities by implementing available initiatives and tools, supported by proactive scenario testing, to enable diversification of suppliers and resources. Flexibility is required to enable better resource allocation, cost efficiency and ability to react quickly to unforeseen events. Supply chain circularity builds on both visibility and flexibility, when products are designed and built with the end in mind, choice of materials and disassembly methods then better align to supply chain circularity by supporting reuse and recycling, rather than against circular economy principles.