Our initiatives

Sustainable Shipping

Shipping positively affects the lives of billions of people, with 90% of the world’s international trade travelling by sea. The industry accounts for approximately 3% of global CO2 emissions and there is growing scrutiny of its wider social and environmental impacts.

The industry now faces a range of social and environmental challenges, such as volatile fuel prices, shifting markets and patterns of trade, and changing governance structures.

In the face of all those challenges, Swire Bulk Pte Ltd (“Swire Bulk “) is committed to making shipping a sustainable industry. We are founder members of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative and the Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative.

Swire Bulk is a member and an active participant of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI). The SSI is a coalition of shipping leaders from around the world, formed to take practical steps to tackle some of the sector’s greatest opportunities and challenges. The group is working to achieve a vision “of an industry in which sustainability equals success”.


By being an active member of the SSI, Swire Bulk works alongside competitors, regulators, suppliers, financial institutions etc., united by the common goal to show that collaborative action is possible, and to mobilise support across the whole shipping supply chain, demonstrating that shipping can contribute to and (will only) thrive by operating in a sustainable manner.



Swire Bulk has a Sustainable Ship Recycling Policy in place stating that all vessels at the end of their working life will be sent for recycling to yards that, as a minimum, adhere to the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) that was adopted on 15 May 2009 (even prior to its full ratification); and that, are certified by a reputable independent third party to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, OHSAS 18001:1999 and preferably, ISO 30000:2009. This policy ensures that Swire Bulk recycles its assets in a sustainable, safe, and in environmentally responsible manner. Swire Bulk has been working with the management of selected Ship Recycling Facilities in Alang, India, on improving their health and safety standards as well as environmental compliance. 

Read more about the mitigated environmental impacts and health, safety and social impacts of Sustainable Ship Recycling here.