South Korea’s HD Hyundai, the world’s largest shipbuilding group, said Friday it is forming the industry’s first alliance for carbon neutrality along with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Samsung Heavy Industries, the American Bureau of Shipping and the Korean Register of Shipping.
On Thursday, the top three local shipbuilders and international ship classification organizations agreed to carry out a joint project tracking and standardizing their carbon footprint based on Scope 3 emissions or end-user emissions that cover the majority of the company’s greenhouse gas pollution throughout its total value chain.
The alliance also includes HD Hyundai’s four affiliates -- Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.
Under the agreement, the participating companies will share their own carbon emissions data to come up with a list of standardized global guidelines by the end of this year.
The companies also plan to collect opinions from diverse interest groups and upgrade the guidelines to be shared with global shipbuilders and organizations.
The latest move comes as shipbuilders are facing growing calls to disclose their Scope 3 emissions data from regulatory bodies around the world.
Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering was Korea’s first shipbuilder to calculate its Scope 3 carbon emissions and disclose related data to the public last year. As part of emissions-reducing efforts, the company has been pouring resources into eco-friendly shipbuilding technologies and their commercialization.