Shipbuilding is a common traditional sector for coastal areas of the Adriatic-Ionian region. From the past to the present times, it has provided economic growth and employment opportunities to the inhabitants. However, shipbuilding has also been profoundly affected by a lack of effective global trade rules and investment initiatives. Moreover, pollution caused by increasing numbers of ships in the Mediterranean has worsen the pressure on the marine ecosystem and air quality. This is where the need for a transition towards sustainability in shipping comes. 

A s you probably know, steel and iron are nowadays one of the most used materials to build ships. But technology can help replace them with new approaches and composite materials to make vessels more sustainable, recyclable, and less noisy. We discuss this and the future challenges of shipbuilding together with Professor Nikitas Nikitakos, coordinator of the ADRION-funded project NEORION. The project focuses on green shipbuilding and the promotion of new materials through coordinated efforts among eight organisations from both sides of the Adriatic-Ionian seas, blending research centres with public authorities and private organisations. This mix helped build synergies directly benefitting shipowners, operators and builders in search of solutions for improved sustainability.

Leading the way towards sustainable shipping

Shipbuilding is a marine-related activity which may alter the marine ecosystems and consequenty have an impact on the sustainability of the blue economy. As Professor Nikitas Nikitakos, a maritime engineer by background, said: 

Professor Nikitas Nikitakos
Dept. of Shipping Trade and Transport University of the Aegean (Greece)

 “The Adriatic Ionian Seas, due to the high number of anthropic activities in the area, such as the density of the population, the pressure generated by tourism, represents one of the places where the green transition is essential. On top of everything,” continued the Professor, “climate change affects heavily the sector. And here comes the need to investigate different technologies that promote green shipping”. The project’s major focus, such as the identification and promotion of sustainable ship manufacturing, addresses one of the main issues of the area : “Fleets in the Adriatic-Ionian area are extremely old, the transition to more sustainable vessels has not come yet and this has quite a big impact on the marine ecosystems”, says the Professor, “In addition to that, we are asked by the European Commission to align with the new regulations on maritime shipping which are fully oriented towards greener materials, energy efficiency, etc., even though several legal and administrative burdens at national level still lay unsolved”, he states.

So, the transition to green shipbuilding is not as easy as it seems.  As a matter of fact, purchasing a green vessel can be costly but long-term benefits are too good to be ignored: “Green shipbuilding is expensive, but new technologies can lead to savings in the long term, in terms of energy consumption as well as efficiency. For instance, we need to support ship holders by giving them information on accessing to funds, and let them exchange among peers on the best solutions to adopt”, concludes Nikitakos. The Project NEORION aims at speeding up this process by boosting the cooperation between enterprises and research centres. It involved more than 100 companies as well as organizations and research centers to share knowledge on how to innovate in the nautical sector. In particular, the project involved companies still anchored to craftsmanship, where resistance to innovation might be stronger due to high costs. Overall, Neorion was able to develop a mix of actions that aims at mobilising both policymakers and private organisations through transnational cooperation and digital tools. Indeed, one of the most effective initiatives was to set up a transnational Cluster on green shipbuilding with the ambition to accelerate both the cooperation of key actors & innovation in the industry.