Hapag-Lloyd wins ZEMBA’s first tender

On Tuesday, Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) announced the successful conclusion of its first tender for ocean shipping that achieves at least a 90% reduction of greenhouse gases on a lifecycle basis relative to fossil fuel-powered service.

Through this deal, more than a dozen ZEMBA members including founding members Amazon, Patagonia, and Tchibo alongside Bauhaus, Brooks Running, DB Journey, Green Worldwide Shipping, lululemon, Meta, New Balance, Nike, REI Co-op, and Sport-Thieme have collectively committed to purchasing the environmental attributes associated with over 1 billion TEU-miles of zero-emission shipping on a route from Singapore to Rotterdam in 2025-2026.

Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s leading container shipping companies, was selected as the winner of ZEMBA’s inaugural tender. After contracting, ZEMBA expects members to collectively avoid at least 82,000 metric tonnes of CO2e over two years through Hapag-Lloyd’s independently certified and exclusively waste-based biomethane service.

Given the expected potential for the first deployment of e-fuels on the water in 2027, this deal was adjusted from three years to two years – 2025-2026 – to allow members the opportunity through ZEMBA’s second tender to focus on supporting e-fuels and technologies of nonbiological origin.

To inform the design of ZEMBA’s next tender and ensure it unlocks investment in the next generation of fuels and technologies, ZEMBA will be seeking information in the coming months from actors across the maritime value chain working to develop e-fuel infrastructure, bunkering, ship design, and other details. The second tender is anticipated to launch later in 2024.

ZEMBA and Hapag-Lloyd will utilize a book & claim system to facilitate verification and credible and appropriate allocation of the environmental attributes of Hapag-Lloyd’s independently certified waste-based biomethane shipping service.

A number of ZEMBA members and Hapag-Lloyd are working with the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping and RMI on the development of a best-in-class, nonprofit maritime book and claim system, which is intended to allow companies to invest in the zero-emission transition and appropriately claim the environmental benefits without interrupting logistics flows essential to the global economy.

The results from ZEMBA’s tender process will also provide real-world insights to inform the development of an ambitious global maritime decarbonization policy.

In the coming months, the Aspen Institute, which serves as secretariate for ZEMBA, will work with cargo owners to convey lessons learned from ZEMBA’s tender process to support the International Maritime Organization’s development of robust lifecycle assessment guidelines and mid-term measures that are credible, transparent, verifiable, and create a level playing field for climate leaders across the value chain.

ZEMBA’s tender was designed and executed with several key partners. They include Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, a non-profit research and action initiative of Lloyd’s Register Group and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, dedicated to accelerating the safe and sustainable decarbonisation of the maritime industry.