Page 39: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2023)

HEMPEL

As ship owner/operators eye increasingly stringent environmental and emission standards, partners like

Hempel – which provide engineered solutions to help slash fuel burn and emissions and back it up with data – become increasingly important. Maritime Reporter &

Engineering News recently visited the Danish coating manufacturer’s headquarters for a sit-down and update with Alexander Enström, EVP and Head of Marine, and

Martin Wiese, VP of Sustainability, Hempel.

By Greg Trauthwein igitalization” and “big data” are oft over- performance and annual sales. To its core the company has used jargon, but trite as they may be the dedicated itself to the decarbonization and ESG mantra, and fact remains that no time in history has effort championed by Martin Wiese, VP of Sustainability. “D the marine industry been so dependent on When assessing his number one challenge, Wiese said that in- data to help it understand and crack the challenges of to- ternal education – the creation of a common and well-under- day and tomorrow. It’s arguable that too much attention is stood ESG language company wide – is the critical building paid – particularly in the trade press – to the challenges of block to create a solid foundation for the strategy, and ulti- the future rather than the problems of today, which is why mately, the company’s success.

it’s refreshing to visit a Hempel: ? rmly rooted in helping “Consider how long it took to create the language of ? nance shipowners with technical solutions to run more ef? cient – revenue, EBITDA, capital, you name it. What we are trying voyages today; with a keen eye – backed by a strong R&D to do now is to create a language of sustainability, which none budget, – on the challenges ahead. of us really know.”

Wiese sees the common language as the cornerstone for

TRAVELING THE ESG PATH Hempel to not only commit to sustainability, but to act.

Alexander Enström, EVP and Head of Marine, came up “Sustainability is not a function, sustainability is what we through the engineering ranks, a material chemist working in do as a company,” said Wiese. “If we are to commercialize the R&D department, always focused on maritime applica- sustainability, they need to understand that lingo, fundamen- tions. His ? rst role in the company was developing antifoul- tally, across everything we do.” ing coatings, and he made the jump to the business/client- Ensuring that the entire organization moves forward in step facing side to better understand how customer needs drove is easier said than done, and while that challenge is formi- product development. dable, “a second challenge is to connect the language to data,”

According to Enström, Hempel sells nearly 100 million li- said Wiese. By this he knows the company must commit, act, ters of maritime coatings per year, developed, sold and ser- communicate, and ultimately, back the actions with solid data viced by approximately 800 Hempel employees on the mari- that relate to how its coatings quanti? ably help reduce fuel time side out of the nearly 7,000 employees at the group level. burn and emissions.

“We are particularly big on the dry docking, hull performance Enström concurs that data is central to the solution, but has side, that's truly our passion to help the industry decarbon- a different take on the issue. ize,” saying that Hempel has applied its premium technology “We are in an incredibly competitive business, and for us brand Hempaguard on more than 3,000 ships, helping to save the challenge is around education. We believe we have a solu- around 27 million tons of CO2 emissions. tion that can help this industry decarbonize fast,” he said. To

While impressive, the Hempel story is more than coatings, that end Hempel is working intensively with ? rst movers in www.marinelink.com 39

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