When I told people I had accepted a placement at Hapag-Lloyd in Hamburg; one of the world’s largest container shipping companies, nobody immediately thought: sustainability. Honestly, neither did I at first.
Shipping is not an industry that tends to come to mind when people talk about green living. It is not solar panels on rooftops or bamboo toothbrushes. It is enormous vessels crossing oceans, burning fuel, moving the goods that keep the world running. Yet, when I started to look more closely, I realised that this is precisely where some of the most consequential sustainability work of our generation is happening; quietly, at scale, and largely out of sight.
I grew up hearing about the shipping industry. My father’s side of the family has been in it for over 100 years, going back to my great-grandfather. It was always part of the background of my life; something I was curious about but never fully understood. Now, as a second year Computer Science and AI student, I am about to step inside it. What I have come to understand is that this industry is at a turning point. Hapag-Lloyd has committed to net-zero fleet operations by 2045. The Data Insights and AI team I will be joining is part of how they get there; using data to optimise fleet capacity, reduce fuel consumption, and make smarter decisions across a supply chain that touches almost every country on earth.
I will be flying to Hamburg, and once there I intend to use public transport exclusively; Hamburg has one of the best transit systems in Europe.
But the more meaningful commitment I am making is this: to pay attention. I am going to ask questions about how the company measures its environmental impact, how AI is being used to reduce emissions, and what the gap still looks like between where the industry is and where it needs to be. I want to write about what I learn, sharing it with peers at the University of Bath who, like me before this placement, might not have considered the shipping industry as a space where sustainability battles are being fought and won.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals that feel most alive to me in the context of this placement are SDG 13 Climate Action, SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals. These are not abstract to me anymore. They are the framework around work I will be doing every day.
I used to think sustainability meant changing your personal habits. I still think that matters. But I am starting to understand that the bigger lever is being inside the systems that shape how the world operates and using whatever skills you have to push them in a better direction. That is what I am going to Hamburg to do.
Useful Resources:
1. www.goldstandard.org
2. www.atmosfair.de
3. www.hvv.de
4. www.sdgs.un.org
5. www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/meta/sustainability.html
