In the wake of its recent official opening, the Vancouver Maritime Centre for Climate (VMCC) has announced the launch of Operation Flagship.
Operation Flagship will be at the heart of VMCC’s services and will help facilitate the provision of climate solution pilots and accelerate the implementation and/or adoption of emission reduction solutions. The purpose of these pilot projects is to help ship owners, operators, ports & terminals as well as the supporting land-based infrastructure source innovative and sustainable solutions suited to their operating profile to help them to reduce their GHG emissions or to decarbonize completely.
“In just one year, VMCC has gone from an idea discussed over lunch, to a rapidly expanding start-up” said VMCC’s co-founder Elisabeth Charmley, a naval architect. She noted that VMCC has a broad reach locally, nationally and well beyond into the international maritime and deep-sea shipping communities.
“Our community is already taking action to address climate change and reduce their carbon footprint, so it’s important that we work with them to help them get the tools and resources they need to not only meet but exceed emission targets coming down the pipeline.” Ms. Charmley continued.
As an organization, VMCC has innovation and the environment at the core of its values. Its mandate, locally based and industry led, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province of British Columbia, Canada, for both the local captive fleet and transient shippers. Their philosophy is deeply rooted in the environmental ethos that Vancouver is well known for and is positioned to help the local shipping industry gain access to innovation, innovators and other solutions that can help the industry meet climate targets established by the International Maritime Organization, Federal Government and the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy.
“Operation Flagship is designed to bring together innovators with site hosts to demonstrate the effectiveness of new or existing decarbonizing solutions. This program will help to accelerate and scale solutions that have real impacts on maritime industry emissions” says co-founder, Bryan Buggey.
Speaking at the VMCC launch on April 30th, the honorable Minister Johnathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and MP for the North Vancouver riding, summarized the Canadian Government’s new target commitments announced at the recent 2021 Leaders’ Summit on Climate hosed by the United States, of a 40-45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. He acknowledged that Canada is on track to meet a 36% reduction, but still more needs to be done. “Our goals are going to take effort, not only on the part of Government, but on the part of businesses, communities and organizations like yours.”
Also speaking at the VMCC launch was the honourable Minister Bernadette Jordan, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans who said “Our government’s commitment to addressing climate change aligns very closely with the goals that VMCC has set, and this means opportunity for all of us. The carbon footprint of global shipping generates about 3% of world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. Considering the industry’s potential for growth, this figure will continue to rise if left unchecked. So, it’s great to see leaders like yourselves ensuring a clean future.”
“We spend a lot of time thinking about changing the way ocean business is done”, said Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster.
VMCC has launched Operation Flagship with funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada, in collaboration with Det Norsk Veritas (DNV) a Norwegian risk management company, as well as locally based, Foresight Canada, a clean-tech accelerator and Brightspot Climate, a climate change and energy consultant.
Innovators are encouraged to apply online via VMCC’s website
