Holistic analysis of ship's sustainability

Waterborne transport is widely believed to be one of the most sustainable modes of transportation. However factors which are often overlooked such as unmeasured pollution and costs, hazards to crew, shipyard workers, their families and society in general call into question this particular assessment of the industry. This paper highlights the need for the application of a holistic approach for guiding the maritime industry towards sustainability (less polluting, economical viable and more human-friendly operating model) and proposes a new structured assessment methodology to achieve it. A definition of maritime sustainability is proposed, one in which ship-oriented sustainability is redefined as a cost-effective activity with few environmental load and without affecting peoples quality of life. There is also a review of the critical pollution, cost and social drivers of ship performance as well as a discussion about the capabilities and limitations of the current environmental/economical/social assessment tools for quantifying shipping sustainability.