📋 Tender Overview
Funding
European
European Union
Duration
01/2024
-
12/2026
Status Ongoing
Total project cost €5 314 022
EU Contribution €4 499 935
Project Acronym CirclesOfLife
STRIA Roadmaps
Transport mode
Waterborne icon
Transport policies
Environmental/Emissions aspects
Transport sectors
Freight transport
Call for proposal HORIZON-CL5-2023-D5-01
Link to CORDIS
CORDIS ID: 101138013
Background & Policy context
Shipyards are increasingly required to assess their environmental impact transparently and comprehensively. While existing standards address a ship’s operational footprint, the non-operational impact of shipyard processes, materials, and components remains largely uncharted. The EU-funded CirclesOfLife project seeks to address this gap by developing a methodology and framework to evaluate the environmental performance of European shipyards. The project aims to create a SEPI methodology and a Cradle-to-Cradle Ship Passport, which will be tested in day-to-day operations spanning from new building projects to recycling yards. Independent NGOs, Surfrider and ShipBreaking Platform are actively supporting the project’s clear pathway towards market introduction and societal impact. Ultimately, the goal is to establish a standard that enables stakeholders to compare the environmental footprint of both ships and shipyards effectively.
Objectives
The market conditions and the regulatory framework for the shipping industry and shipyards are changing profoundly. In response, shipyards need to build up the capacity to assess the environmental footprint of their yard-activities and the ship to inform their stakeholders in a transparent, understandable, comprehensive, and trustworthy way. While the environmental footprint of the operational phase of a ship can be covered sufficiently by existing standards, the non-operational footprint of the shipyard processes and the integrated materials and components remain a black box.
It is the ambition of this project to drastically change the as-is situation and to make the impact measurable and thereby drive progress toward circular, zero impact shipping over the full circle of life of a ship. Therefore, CirclesOfLife will develop, test, and validate a general methodology and framework applicable to all European shipyards enabling to close the gaps in assessing the environmental performance of the shipyards and the ships they design, build, maintain, retrofit or recycle. CirclesOfLife will go beyond state of the art by defining a scientifically sound SEPI-methodology and Cradle2Cradle Ship Passport and will test and validate its applicability in day-to-day business of shipyards and suppliers in several use-cases, ranging from new building- to repair-and maintenance- to recycling yards.
Moreover, CirclesOfLife follows a clear pathway towards market introduction and societal impact supported by Surfrider and ShipBreaking Platform as independent and trustworthy NGO’s. Based on the described measu
