Identification of Shipyard Priorities in a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Environment through a Transdisciplinary Energy Management Framework: A Real Case Study for a Turkish Shipyard

Abstract

Ship building, as an energy-intensive sector, produces significant amounts of air emissions, including greenhouse gases. Most research in greenhouse gas reductions from shipping concentrates on the reduction in emissions during the operational phase. However, as emissions during ship operation are reduced, the construction and dismantling phases of ships are becoming increasingly important in the assessment of the life-cycle impact of ships. In this study, priorities for a Turkish shipyard to become energy efficient were identified by means of a semi-structured questionnaire and an interview. This was undertaken using Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methods, including the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution, which are part of a proposed systematic and transdisciplinary Energy Management Framework and System. By applying Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methods, this framework supports the shipyard’s decision makers to make rational and optimized decisions regarding energy sectors within their activities. Applying the framework has significant potential to help achieve good product quality while reducing costs and environmental impacts, and can thereby enhance the sustainability of shipping. Moreover, the framework can boost both business and socio-economic perspectives for the shipyard, and improve its reputation and competitiveness, in alignment with achieving the Nationally Determined Contributions of States under the Paris Agreement.

Bibliometric analysis of sustainable shipping in Web of Science database in 2020 and 2021

“…A search on the Web of Science Core Collection database [43], topic sustainable shipping, is composed of 35 scientific papers published in the last two years, 2020 and 2021 [1,2,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,37,39,40,41,42]. Topic search used for this purpose was ''sustainable shipping'' or sustainable shipping*.…”

A Conceptual Transdisciplinary Framework to Overcome Energy Efficiency Barriers in Ship Operation Cycles to Meet IMO’s Initial Green House Gas Strategy Goals: Case Study for an Iranian Shipping Company

“…Energy efficiency is a key issue in reducing carbon emissions; however, there may be an inherent discrepancy between the best implementation and real-time implementation, which is called the "energy efficiency gap" [14,15]. This is due to mechanisms that prevent investment in energy-efficient and economically effective technologies [12,[16][17][18], which is called the "energy efficiency barrier".…”

“…The goal was to check whether the criteria mentioned have the same importance in the five disciplines. The ISC managers can make a matrix for comparative weighting if the criteria have different importance in each discipline [12]. Respondents were questioned which criteria were most important to them in overcoming barriers.…”

“…Energy efficiency is a crucial factor and plays a key role in achieving the IMO targets, and as fuel costs account for 60% of ships' operating costs [11], ship owners are keen to improve energy efficiency on board their fleets. In addition, rising energy costs and regulations are driving ship owners' interest in improving the energy efficiency of their fleet; however, in real cases, there is a gap between potential energy efficiency and actual energy efficiency measures on board ships, and this is due to a number of barriers that prevent implementation [12]. Ship owners and managers want to identify the barriers to energy efficiency on board their fleet and overcome the energy efficiency gap, as it leads to economic benefits for them and helps them to comply with IMO greenhouse gas regulations.…”

“…To achieve this goal, a captain and a chief engineer of the fleet were selected for interviews, as they are the key people responsible for the energy efficiency measures on board the vessels, as well as the head of fleet operations, the head of fleet engineering and the company's managing director, who have a crucial role in improving energy efficiency in the fleet. The application of the framework to ship owners accelerates the reduction in carbon emissions from their fleets and gives ship managers a clear picture of the barriers within their fleets and organizations, helping managers and policy makers to adopt appropriate energy strategies and policies to overcome them, leading to additional economic benefits and accelerating the transition to zero emissions and the achievement of the IMO's GHG strategy targets [12].…”