Finnlines introduces Green Lane for low-carbon sea transportation

In late May, Finnlines launched a new Green Lane sea transportation service, providing customers with an opportunity to meet increasingly stringent environmental requirements and achieve ambitious energy-saving targets.

Many companies have set goals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. To meet these targets, they need to cut not only the emissions from their own operations (known as Scope 1 and 2 emissions), but also those from related services such as transport (Scope 3 emissions). By choosing greener transport options like Finnlines’ Green Lane, companies can reduce their reported emissions and provide more sustainable products and services to their customers.

Two options are available for new, low emission shipments: electricity or biofuels.

Fully electrically powered shipments on the route between Naantali and Kapellskär

100% electrically powered shipments are the cleanest option on the sea transportation market. This service is available on the busy Naantali (Finland) – Kapellskär (Sweden) route, which is operated by Finnlines’ newest hybrid ro-pax ships, the Finnsirius and Finncanopus.

The ships’ 5 MWh batteries are charged with onshore power while at berth, and this energy is utilized at sea to replace fossil fuel, thus enabling green transportation for certain freight units.

“Our utmost goal is to reduce emissions and we’re already seeing concrete results,” explained Finnlines Line Manager Antonio Raimo. “With the introduction of our new vessels the Finnsirius and Finncanopus we’ve entered the hybrid era and can now offer our customers even more efficient and sustainable sea transport services. Although the cargo capacity of the vessels operating on the Naantali–Kapellskär route has increased significantly, absolute carbon dioxide emissions per nautical mile have actually decreased by some 22%.”

Low-carbon transportation with biofuels in the Baltic Sea

The second Green Lane option utilizes biofuels derived from renewable sources, which can reduce well-to-wake greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% compared with conventional fossil fuels. When a customer chooses this option, Finnlines commits to replacing with biofuel the amount of fossil fuel needed to transport that customer’s cargo.

This solution is available on short-sea shipping routes which are of utmost importance for the security of supplies in the Baltic Sea region, i.e. Naantali – Kapellskär, Malmö (Sweden) – Travemünde (Germany), Malmö – Świnoujście (Poland) and Hanko (Finland) – Gdynia (Poland).

“We want to offer our customers concrete solutions to help them achieve their decarbonization targets. Both solutions ensure low emissions – for example, the use of biofuel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 700 kg per trailer on the Hanko–Gdynia route,” pointed out Finnlines’ Commercial Director Merja Kallio-Mannila.

A Green Lane for passengers

Last but not least, the Green Lane is also available for passengers on Finnlines’ ro-pax routes: Naantali – Långnäs – Kapellskär, Helsinki – Travemünde, Malmö – Travemünde and Malmö – Świnoujście. If passengers choose this option, Finnlines will use renewable biofuels to replace the corresponding amount of fossil fuels: as a result, the emissions per passenger on the route will decrease.