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Program Sustainable shipping

The Swedish Transport Administration’s industry programme “Sustainable Shipping” runs over a ten-year period, from 2019 to 2028, and has now passed the halfway point. The programme, led by Lighthouse, aims to create an internationally competitive, sustainable, and safe maritime sector with good working conditions.

Sustainable Shipping


Sustainable Shipping’s thematic areas

Ship design, propulsion and operation

To achieve shipping without negative impacts on the climate and environment, deep knowledge is required not only of traditional marine engineering issues, but also of ship operation and the environmental impacts of maritime activities. A sustainable shipping sector relies on technical development to assess whether new design concepts, materials, fuels, emission control technologies, and more truly result in reduced energy consumption and lower environmental impact, such as emissions to air and water. It also requires continuous development of operational practices onboard. Reducing emissions during daily operations through, for example, eco-driving, speed limitations, and route optimization based on water depth, wind, and currents will remain an important area of research.

Since the ecological impact of emissions from ships depends on when and where they occur, it is also crucial to consider the routing of high-intensity traffic. Analyses of the spatial use of sensitive marine and coastal areas by shipping are therefore essential.

From a social sustainability perspective, ship design and operation also play an important role in onboard safety and working conditions. From an economic sustainability perspective, this area is highly relevant, as innovation and development in ship technology can lead to more cost-efficient solutions. In both newbuilding and retrofitting of existing fleets, sustainable, higher-quality, and/or lower-cost solutions can strengthen the competitiveness of the shipping sector.

The thematic area Ship Design, Propulsion and Operation focuses on projects that develop models and methods applicable to unconventional propulsion solutions, hull forms, or material choices. It supports the development of ship and treatment systems that are functional, efficient, and provide a good working environment. The theme also addresses how day-to-day ship operation can be improved, as well as the spatial use of our waterways by shipping.

Several current research questions in this area are addressed in Lighthouse pre-studies, including:

  • Dynamic dimensioning of ships

  • Maritime electrification – needs and opportunities

  • Improved performance prediction and operational optimization of ships

Research on wind-assisted propulsion is also being conducted within the Lighthouse postdoc program.


Ship Design and Propulsion

The concept of ship design and propulsion includes classic marine engineering topics such as hull structure, hull form design, propeller design, material selection, stability, seakeeping, as well as propulsion systems, alternative fuels, installation of emission control technologies, heat recovery, antifouling technologies, and more.

The design of the hull form and the aerodynamic resistance of superstructures affect the ship’s resistance through water. As ships become larger and more customized, it becomes increasingly important to understand how wave resistance and air drag impact fuel consumption. There is significant energy-saving potential, especially when the interaction with the propeller, rudder, stabilizing fins, etc., is taken into account.

Reducing ship weight and hull material usage can lead to resource savings during construction and throughout the ship's operational life. To achieve such benefits, knowledge must be developed and methods refined. More efficient material use requires improved accuracy in assessing hull strength in relation to operational profiles, seakeeping, and handling. Wind-assisted propulsion, for example, can reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but must be assessed from a life cycle perspective that considers safety and working conditions. The same applies to all unconventional fuel and propulsion solutions. A clear system perspective is needed to improve safety and precision in ship design methodologies—such as hull construction, seakeeping analysis, and propulsion performance prediction.


Operation

Operation refers to how onboard crews and shore-based personnel manage the daily operation and navigation of ships. How information and installed technology are actually used has a critical impact on energy efficiency, operational safety, and emissions to air and water. Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors—both onboard and ashore—strongly influence the ability and willingness to optimize ship operation and to utilize and maintain installed technologies.

To achieve sustainable shipping, deeper knowledge and research are needed on human-technology interaction, where crew and shore staff attitudes and behavior are key to reducing the environmental impact of shipping. Sustainable shipping must use inland and coastal waterways responsibly. Research that highlights necessary changes in shipping routes, traffic flows, and anchorage locations to reduce conflicts with other interests is also essential.

Maritime working life

A physical, social, and organizational work environment that contributes to a long-term sustainable working life is a strategic challenge both nationally and globally. In Sweden, the government has adopted a Work Environment Strategy for Modern Working Life, setting the direction for the years 2016–2020 (Gov. Bill 2015/16:80). This strategy identifies three priority areas: a zero vision for fatal accidents and the prevention of occupational injuries, a sustainable working life, and a good psychosocial work environment. At the international level, the UN maritime agency IMO is working to implement and advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Swedish shipping has a significant opportunity to serve as a role model in achieving the global goals within the maritime working environment.

The technical and administrative systems used in today’s work environments are becoming increasingly complex, placing new demands on users to monitor, manage, and resolve novel types of situations. The design of these systems affects individual performance, health, and well-being—as well as personnel motivation, attitudes, and behavior. Consequently, it also affects organizational effectiveness, competitiveness, and the ability to manage change and address safety challenges. Research must aim to create healthy, low-stress working conditions in both national and international shipping, free from psychosocial problems and poor work environments resulting from reduced crew sizes, narrower logistics margins, and design flaws in new technologies.

Looking ahead, as people are expected to remain in the workforce longer, it is essential to ensure not only opportunities for continuous skills development, but also working conditions that prevent early exit from working life, while securing the transfer of critical knowledge. Equal and inclusive workplaces—where everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, or other background, has the same opportunity to shape their careers and have their work and competencies equally valued—are fundamental for socially sustainable development.

This area primarily concerns the social dimension of sustainability, while a well-functioning maritime working life is also a cornerstone of economically sustainable shipping. There is a growing need for intensified research into how organizations and systems can be designed to support a long-term sustainable maritime working life. We also need more knowledge about how leadership, management, and employees interact in multicultural and geographically dispersed workplaces, and how leadership adapts to a working life under constant change.

Furthermore, more research is needed to understand how technical and administrative systems in shipping can be designed, implemented, and maintained in ways that enhance usability while reducing risks of mental and physical illness, sub-optimization, human error, and accidents that could lead to injury, vessel damage, or environmental harm. Creating the conditions for a sustainable maritime working life also requires elevating certain questions to an interdisciplinary level and drawing on insights from other sectors beyond maritime.

Efficient Transport Systems, Policy Instruments and Business Models

Shipping is a prerequisite for global trade, ongoing globalization, and our shared prosperity. It is a central component of the international transport system. As such, shipping is closely interconnected with research areas such as law, economics, business, and industrial management, including subfields like international trade, accounting, and logistics. Developing efficient logistics and integrated transport systems—from local to global—is crucial for addressing sustainability challenges.

The development of existing policy instruments and the introduction of new ones are necessary, as the transport sector cannot be expected to voluntarily and universally implement the actions required to meet the political objectives established at various levels.

Policy instruments aim to correct market failures and influence actors’ behavior so that resources are used in a more socially efficient manner. These instruments can be categorized into four groups:

  • Administrative (e.g. legislation, standards, regulations, technical requirements),

  • Economic (e.g. taxes, fees, subsidies),

  • Informational (e.g. awareness campaigns, education, advisory services), and

  • Research, development, and demonstration (see e.g. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency report 6415/2012).

Infrastructure investments may also act as policy instruments or as complements to them. Often, a combination of instruments is required to achieve effective outcomes.

Due to the nature of shipping, policy instruments cannot be confined to a single level of governance. There is an interplay between international conventions and policy documents, and national, regional, and local authorities. Furthermore, many instruments are cross-modal and cannot be considered in isolation within a maritime context. Policy tools are also applicable across all three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social.

Managing goal conflicts and balancing different desired outcomes is a key part of designing effective policy. For instance, regulations aimed at reducing emissions can lead to disproportionate cost increases, which may reduce mobility for individuals or incentivize the use of cheaper but more environmentally harmful modes of transport. Similarly, noise restrictions imposed on ports can limit the operating hours of smaller ports, reducing their competitiveness compared to larger, more remote ports and limiting transport options for businesses.

Given the complexity of the transport system, there is a risk that poorly designed policy instruments may result in unintended consequences or fail to achieve their goals. To minimize this risk, the effects of individual and combined policy instruments must be forecasted with adequate precision. This is especially important in times of significant or frequent change, as instruments lose their effectiveness if they are not perceived as stable enough to influence long-term behavior. Moreover, policies and instruments must be subject to evaluation to assess their effectiveness in achieving intended outcomes.

Policy instruments and incentives for sustainable transport systems need further development and evaluation. This requires knowledge and methodologies to assess the socio-economic costs and benefits of shipping, enabling identification of policy gaps that need to be addressed. This applies both to intermodal competition and more specifically to the introduction of sustainable fuels and emissions control technologies, integration with land-based infrastructure, and operational measures such as slow steaming. The area is characterized by a strong interdependence between the private and public sectors and the need for international solutions.

Digitalization and Automation

Digitalization and automation impact all dimensions of sustainability and offer significant opportunities to improve safety and efficiency across the transport system, including the maritime sector. The risk of accidents—such as oil spills—can be expected to decrease through more advanced collision-avoidance systems. These tools also hold great potential to improve energy efficiency, reduce fuel consumption, and thereby lower greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

This thematic area aims to increase and further develop the use of digitalization and automation. Maritime transport is built on collaboration between various actors, and digitalization facilitates greatly enhanced integration across the transport chain, acting as a crucial enabler for the transport system as a whole. Digitalization and automation can improve the efficiency of resource and energy use, maritime safety and security, and operational working conditions. However, the increase in information flows also imposes higher demands on secure information sharing.

Unlike objectives such as fossil independence or zero emissions, digitalization and automation are not goals in themselves. Rather, this field—often encompassing and reliant on connectivity—includes technologies and applications that can enable radically different solutions to achieve sustainability, improved safety, and greater efficiency in the maritime system. Targeting research efforts toward foundational functions related to digitalization, automation, and connectivity is motivated by their potential to generate not only incremental but also disruptive improvements that may fundamentally reshape the maritime domain.

The effectiveness of digitalization, automation, and connectivity in achieving all three dimensions of sustainability depends on how they are applied and integrated. Therefore, this area is highly relevant to achieving national transport policy goals.

Digital technologies can enhance energy efficiency and reduce fuel consumption, key prerequisites for achieving fossil independence and zero harmful emissions. Machine learning, for instance, can optimize vessel performance in real time to minimize fuel use under prevailing conditions. It can also support maintenance planning, such as hull and propeller cleaning or damage detection.

Other applications include route and speed optimization based on weather, sea geography, and real-time logistics data, including dynamic re-planning using predictive analytics. The transformation is also supported by new control systems and components that allow the integration of emission-free and conventional propulsion methods in hybrid systems.

In terms of social sustainability, the area contributes by enhancing maritime safety through better navigation, communication, and operational control. These advances reduce the risk of incidents and improve emergency response capabilities. However, the implementation of these technologies must follow a user-centered approach, with continuous validation to ensure real-world utility. Even the most advanced safety system is ineffective if it goes unused due to being impractical or unintuitive.

Improved prevention and emergency response protect lives, health, the environment, and property. From an economic sustainability perspective, digitalization and automation can strengthen competitiveness through more efficient, higher-quality services at lower costs, and by creating new export opportunities for maritime-specific digital technologies and services.

This field also supports and interrelates with the other three thematic areas:

  • Ship design, propulsion, and operation,

  • Maritime working life, and

  • Efficient transport systems, policy instruments, and business models.

Unlike the potential trade-offs or synergies between these other areas, digitalization and automation act as enablers for many innovations across them. As seen in aviation, rail, and road transport, unmanned systems are not ends in themselves; rather, existing automation and connectivity in shipping can be leveraged to enhance safety, reduce environmental impact, and improve competitiveness.

Examples include advancements in digital infrastructure, self-learning systems, real-time optimization, digital accessibility and cybersecurity, and cross-modal traffic management. One holistic initiative is Sea Traffic Management (STM), which addresses efficiency, safety, security, environmental protection, and the integration of maritime transport into a broader, unified transport system.

STM, inspired by aviation’s SESAR, is a Swedish concept developed in Europe for global implementation. It is based on a digital infrastructure using international standards and open interfaces, enabling vendor-independent information exchange between systems and stakeholders. STM is designed to deliver public value and services such as:

  • Route optimization

  • Ship-to-ship route exchange

  • Improved traffic monitoring

  • Synchronized port arrivals

  • Winter navigation support

These services allow ship and shore personnel to make decisions based on real-time information, improving arrival precision, adjusting speed for better efficiency, reducing administrative burdens, and supporting navigators, operators, and users.

The STM projects involve leading expertise from academia, authorities, and industry worldwide. To advance STM, Sweden must continue to lead its development in the same way that SESAR is advancing within aviation.

The challenges within digitalization and automation are multifaceted and interdisciplinary. A wide variety of projects are relevant: from technical development of components and systems, service innovation combining new and existing technologies, to new logistical and operational solutions and business models that fully leverage the potential of digital and automated vessels. This also includes evaluating the effectiveness and potential of different technologies and identifying barriers and enablers for large-scale adoption in the maritime sector.

Cross-modal comparative methods are relevant here. While development in this area has accelerated, maritime digitalization has historically lagged behind other transport sectors. For instance, automation is significantly more advanced in aviation and rail, with many fully autonomous metro systems. In road transport, major commercial investments are being made in automated driving technologies, often first deployed in controlled environments like mines, terminals, and ports.

Technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems, automated braking, and truck platooning are already being introduced. This opens up opportunities to adapt technologies from other sectors for maritime use. However, achieving this requires both adaptation and the generation of new domain-specific knowledge.

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Startade 2025

   Karl Jivén, IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet 
   Björn Samuelsson, Uppsala University 
   Lena Granhag, Chalmers Tekniska Högskola 
   Hannes von Knorring, DNV 
   Hanna Varvne, RISE

Startade 2024

Karl Jivén, IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Anders Hjort, IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet AB
 Elin Malmgren, IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet 
Björn Samuelsson, Uppsala universitet This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mikael Johansson, DNV This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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   Ceren Altuntas Vural, Chalmers 
   Arash Eslamdoost, Chalmers
   Rasmus Parsmo, IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet 
   Jenette Tifuh Mujingni, Chalmers
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   Sofia Werner, RISE Maritime 
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   Jessica Wehner, VTI This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
   Nermina Saracevic, RISE  

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Luis Sanchez-Heres, RISE This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Zhiyuan Li, Chalmers This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Alex Shiri, RISE This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Startade 2022

Rickard Bensow, Chalmers This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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