Project Announcement: The Center Launches Book & Claim Project With RMI, Danish Shipping, and Maersk Oil Trading
The Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping along with Rocky Mountain Institute, Danish Shipping, and Maersk Oil Trading have initiated a project designing a maritime specific Book & Claim.
For Book & Claim to work and be credible in the maritime industry, a robust and transparent system needs to be designed. With that in mind, the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping along with Rocky Mountain Institute, Danish Shipping, and Maersk Oil Trading have initiated a project designing a maritime specific Book & Claim.
This project is supported by the Danish Maritime Fund, and we are excited to announce we have just finished the first draft of the system design and actively gathering industry feedback. The design phase of this project concludes in April with a public release of a report. But we don’t want our work to end there and intend to pilot the system we are designing. We have just received funding from Orient’s Fond to prepare for a pilot of this system.
If you want to learn more about the first draft of the system design or about the planned pilot, please reach out to info@zerocarbonshipping.com
What is Book & Claim?
Shipping needs new business models to accelerate decarbonization. Nearly everything about the shipping industry will change in the coming decades – from the types of fuels used to the increased collaboration across the value chain. Business models need to be updated alongside these changes, and Book & Claim can be one of the tools to drive this new way of doing business.
Book & Claim is a chain of custody model. These models track product characteristics through a supply chain from their source to the end consumer. People use chain of custody models every day. When you buy organic milk from a grocery store you trust the label. You know it's organic because there is a chain of custody that can trace the milk from your shopping cart to a certified organic farm. Chain of custody models give credibility that what you are buying is what they are selling.
Book & Claim is the same concept with a twist. Instead of buying a product (like milk) and its characteristics (its organic nature) at the same time, Book & Claim decouples the characteristic from the physical product. It would allow you to buy the organic nature of milk without buying the physical milk itself.
Why is it relevant to shipping?
Shipping companies want to decarbonize but can't always find a willingness to pay for green shipping within their customer base. At the same time, customers who want to reduce their shipping emissions might not have have physical access to green ships.
Book & Claim can connect shipping companies offering green shipping with customers who want to pay for it. By decoupling emissions from transport service, it can create a market where these two parties meet. Customers can pay for low emissions and funnel their capital back to green shipping companies, regardless of their physical connection.