Maersk Line’s environmental message reached a potential audience of more than 300 million people recently as the Discovery Channel’s Green Life show told the United States about the greener side of container shipping.
Undisputed leadership, said Maersk Line CEO Eivind Kolding, is leadership in the eyes of customers. Jacob Sterling, Head of Climate & Environment from the Sustainability team, played his part in supporting the CEO’s statement as he explained to the Discovery Channel in the US, the role of container shipping and particularly that of Maersk Line in shaping a greener future.
“It was quite exciting to convey what we do to a large target audience which Discovery Channel represents,” recalls Sterling.
“The challenge was to communicate our environmental initiatives — most of which are highly technical — and make them understandable and relevant for Discovery’s viewers.”
Right and sustainable direction
The location for the shoot was the busy berth 51 at Port Elizabeth, APM Terminals’ facility in New Jersey, US. The fact that Maersk Line was featured, accentuates the company’s ambition to drive the industry in a more sustainable direction.
“Shipping is the most energy efficient means of transportation, but we know there is room for improvement. We are making our intentions clear by supporting a push towards a low-carbon future,” explains Soren Stig Nielsen, Head of Maersk Line Sustainability.
This includes a relative carbon reduction target of 25 % by 2020 (against 2007 performance levels).
The appearance on Discovery Channel is part of the strategy to ensure that our customers and in turn their customers are clued up on this.
“We want to increase the awareness of our environmental efforts and the value our investments represent to our customers’ supply chains,” says Nielsen.
