Our ambition
Enabling smarter, cleaner global trade - that’s our purpose as a company. And we’re committed to working with our stakeholders to create the long-term sustainable changes needed to make it happen. Together, we’re embedding new ways of thinking and working as the norm to ensure a brighter future for all. For more than 170 years, Clarksons has facilitated global trade but now our role is to go further and enable positive change. As the world’s largest integrated shipping service provider, we’re embracing the opportunity for us to have a significant and meaningful impact on the direction and pace with which the maritime industry moves forward, and play our part in creating a better, fairer, more sustainable world.
How we're going to get there
We understand the immense environmental and societal challenges that are facing the world. And we know there are no quick fixes. But that cannot deter us from taking action. Clarksons is committed to making progress today to ensure we are positively contributing towards a better tomorrow.
As a responsible business that is dedicated to becoming more sustainable, we are challenging the status quo through innovation and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders. In practical terms, this means taking a holistic approach and embedding sustainability in our day-to-day thinking at every level.
Our commitment encompasses both the micro and macro. We are working towards embedding sustainable procurement practices and training - opting for energy-efficient alternatives over standard products and seeking out organic, fair-trade, recycled and/or biodegradable items where possible. And we’re ensuring our market-leading research contributes to the greater good - sharing our intelligence with governments, trade bodies, regulators and other relevant stakeholders to offer insight that can inform practical, sustainable approaches to current challenges.
We understand the challenge to reduce carbon emissions in shipping is one that we must tackle together as an industry. As such, we have introduced our dedicated Green Transition team to help clients keep pace with evolving environmental regulations, from forthcoming updates and timings to mandatory policies and frameworks. Working in close collaboration, we define and develop a tailored decarbonisation strategy that is aligned with the client’s wider business values and sustainability targets. We first use our expertise and market intelligence to develop this from an operational and value creation perspective, then utilise our full-service offering to ensure optimal execution.
Our approach to reporting
As an industry-leader, we see it as our responsibility to hold ourselves accountable for becoming a more sustainable business. We believe that our reporting should serve and inform the full breadth of our stakeholder groups and so we regularly produce and publish a number of reports and complete accreditations and assessments, including:
"Shipping is not the root cause of global warming. But everybody in the world has to step up and take responsibility. We're working to help companies deliver that."
Partnerships
Our commitment to becoming a more sustainable business demands we take action. That’s why we’re proactively putting into place the partnerships, systems and structures that will see Clarksons grow as an industry leader for sustainable practices. So that we continue to play our part in creating a greener, cleaner, fairer world for all.
We understand that we can go further, faster when working together with others. That’s why we’re fostering a number of strategic partnerships and memberships to support our forward-thinking sustainability goals. For example, we’re challenging the gender balance within shipping through our established partnership with the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA). Together, we’re hosting events and developing recruitment initiatives to improve representation – not just within Clarksons, but the shipping industry as a whole.
The wayfinding spirit which founded Clarksons is still with us today. And it’s this strong future-focus which drives our partnerships. We’re working with maritime associations, such as Maritime UK and BIMCO, and leading universities and business schools to support, inspire and connect the next generation of shipping professionals. We’re helping frame debate and policy decisions by providing data and intelligence to inter-governmental organisations, governments, regulators and various industry and trade bodies. And we’re also integrating with other leading technology providers to provide comprehensive and robust decision-making tools through our Sea/ platform.