Circles of Life | together towards a green future

Innovation is the driving force in the maritime manufacturing industry. Rosanne van Houwelingen is project manager Innovation. She is responsible for Netherlands Maritime Technology’s Circles of Life programme.

Circles of Life is a European collaborative project running from 2024 to 2027 and funded by Horizon Europe. It is about addressing the critical challenges involved in shipbuilding today, such as climate change and the introduction of new laws and regulations. In particular, the project focuses on reducing emissions, circularity and monitoring environmental impacts. In doing so, the main goal from Netherlands Maritime Technology (NMT) is to involve all parties: shipyards, suppliers and other stakeholders.
From NMT, Rosanne is closely involved in the programme. Among other things, she is responsible for communication and designing training courses from the programme. She also approaches members who she thinks Circles of Life could be a valuable addition to their vision and operations.

Last weekend, a General Assembly took place in Bordeaux, where all project partners get together to update each other and conduct workshops. Rosanne attended. ”It’s really nice to get together with different parties in the maritime that have the same goal in mind; namely to make the sector more circular.” Together with colleague Karlijn van de Kamp, she gave a workshop on the topic of What’s in it for the stakeholders? This workshop discussed exploitation and communication around circularity.
Rosanne: ”We are in the process of developing Cradle-2-Cradle Ship Passport that should help improve the understanding that parties have about the materials and components used in the life cycle of a ship. In addition, the Shipyard Environmental Performance Index (SEPI) is being shaped within the programme. This index will help monitor and evaluate the ecological footprint of shipyards and the parties involved. It is important that all chain parties are involved throughout a ship’s life cycle. Ultimately, the goal is for all parties in the chain to start using the passport and index to improve circularity and ecological footprint.” To create support from every party involved, suppliers, shipyards, shipping companies and all other types of stakeholders are included from the start. ”Ultimately, materials and components should be mapped throughout the process from design to decommissioning,” Rosanne says. That makes recycling a lot easier and brings circular construction closer.

Want to know more about this? Then please contact Rosanne van Houwelingen More information on Circles of Life can be found here.

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Source: Netherlands Maritime Technology.

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