In the organic industry and amongst ethical product (as opposed to service) based companies it's common for suppliers to go down the non-air freighted route of delivery for the sake of their environmental values. Some of the active ingredients of our favourite organic skin care products just can't be grown locally in the UK and have to be imported from abroad.Air freight produces 100 times as much CO2 per tonne kilometre, according to Scenta the information and resource body for the science, engineering and technology industries. But Scenta also highlights that ‘shipping carries 80% of world trade and 92% of British trade. It is a vastly bigger industry than aviation and performs a completely different role.'
The United Nations shipping agency IMO (International Maritime Organization) has started to implement measures to clean up and reduce the harmful emissions from ships. The package of new measures has been ratified by 53 countries which equates to 82% of the total gross tonnage of the world's merchant shipping fleet. A global sulphur cap will be gradually reduced from the current 4.5 percent to 0.5 percent in 2020 as ships start to use cleaner forms of residual fuel oil.
So Organic-ites everywhere (manufacturers, retailers and of course consumers) can rest assured that actions are being taken to make our industry as clean and environmentally ethical as possible.
