Maritime technology company NAVTOR has signed an Integrated Partner agreement with Veracity by DNV, aiming to help shipowners and operators simplify reporting, enable sustainable shipping and unlock green finance. The potential benefits – both commercial and environmental – are “enormous” according to Bjørn Åge Hjøllo, Chief Sustainability Officer, NAVTOR.
NAVTOR has built its reputation as the world’s leading provider of e-Navigation and ENC-based products and services, delivering digital innovations to over 8000 vessels worldwide. Over the past two years it has extended its “digital ecosystem”, which connects key systems onboard with onshore management teams, to provide advanced performance monitoring and optimization capabilities.
Data is the key. And this is where DNV’s cloud platform Veracity comes in.
From regulation to opportunity
“Our ecosystem collects, aggregates and utilises enormous amounts of business-critical data,” explains Hjøllo. “That is used to make shipping safer, simpler and more efficient – automating tasks, reducing fuel consumption, saving costs, and, in short, delivering complete asset awareness and control for our customers. But that data can also be used to unlock ‘next level’ sustainability gains - turning regulations into business opportunity - when you have the right partners.”
Hjøllo notes that climate targets, most notably IMO’s GHG ambitions, are supported by a range of regulations, including IMO DCS, EU MRV and, from 1 January 2023, mandatory calculations of annual Carbon Intensity Indicators (CII) for individual vessels. These help dictate access to Sustainable Linked Finance (SLF), whereby, in keeping with the increasingly widely-adopted Poseidon Principles, owners can benefit from lower interest rates on financing and favourable insurance rates.
Accurate reporting on these regulations is of fundamental importance.
Stakeholder benefits
NAVTOR’s systems harvest and aggregate the required data for reporting and, through auto-populating, radically reduce administration, with automated reports produced at a touch of a button. The firm’s secure, ‘joined-up’ onboard ecosystem provides a single, integrated platform that, say Hjøllo, “covers all the bases” for simple compliance. The agreement with Veracity adds “huge extra value”, he notes, explaining:
“Veracity provides a vital piece of the puzzle. Vessel data can be transferred to the platform in a seamless digital pipeline, with continuous automated data uploads, reducing the need for manual intervention. This can create shorter reporting cycles, delivering reporting of a much higher resolution and frequency, ensuring greater quality and accuracy.
"The agreement with Veracity adds "huge extra value"
“This is something that not only regulators want, but also financial institutions, insurance companies, prospective employees, investors, and a range of other stakeholders. Nobody wants to invest their time, energy or money in companies that aren’t focused on the future.
“Furthermore,” he adds, “all relevant voyage and bunker data can be audited through Veracity on a regular basis and that enables forward-thinking owners, using systems like NAVTOR’s to optimise performance, to constantly work to improve their CII ratings and achieve better terms. The savings here can be enormous.”
Partnering for tomorrow
Here Hjøllo mentions one of NAVTOR’s key customers, Eagle Bulk, which is already using verified data to report carbon intensity performance under their USD 400 million sustainability linked credit facility. They are saving, he says, “significant costs, time and resources.”
Jonathan Dowsett, Director of Fleet Performance at Eagle Bulk, confirms the impact of the solution. He notes: “The integration between NavFleet by NAVTOR and Veracity by DNV has improved the efficiency and quality of Eagle Bulk’s MRV and DCS reporting. By automating the transmission of our fleet emissions data at more frequent intervals, we have simplified compliance while also improving visibility into our decarbonization trajectory and reducing workload.“
For its part, DNV also sees huge value in the partnership, demonstrating the capabilities of the Veracity platform for an industry in transition. Mikkel Skou, Executive Director, Veracity, comments:
“We are very pleased to welcome NAVTOR as an integrated partner. In Veracity, our ambition is to deliver trust and scale to industry digitalization, and by integrating with key maritime data providers like NAVTOR, we wish to make it easier for the industry to securely share and derive full value out of its quality assured operational data. We look forward to working with the team to help our common customers deliver more accurate GHG reporting with a minimum of manual intervention.”
Sustainable commitment
Hjøllo, for one, is convinced that this open, collaborative and data-driven approach can be instrumental in securing a more profitable, sustainable future for the maritime industry.
“There are no losers here, only winners,” he states. “With a single, simple, integrated platform, and high-quality data verification with Veracity, owners and operators can ensure complete compliance while working to lower fuel costs and emissions and access favourable financing. Shipping companies can prove they are committed to sustainable practices – and there are many other datapoints that can be captured through our digital logbooks, e.g. vessel waste and cargo types – and demonstrate their values to customers and staff looking for responsible businesses.
“This might sound daunting, or incredibly complex, but it’s not. With NAVTOR and Veracity, combining for one integrated, agile service, the future of sustainable shipping can be a lot simpler than you think!”