THE European Shippers's Council is calling for greater cooperation among shippers and carriers in a bid to create a more environmentally sustainable supply chain.

    This comes as the ESC unveiled its revised customers' charter for a "sustainable liner" that aims to address the relationship that should exist between the shipper and carrier in connection with service performance, contractual practices and free market principles.

    Presenting the charter at the ESC's Shipper Forum 2011 "Greening the Maritime Supply Chain," which took place in Brussels, ESC secretary general Nicolette van der Jagt said: "The relationship should be a cooperative relationship, a pro-active relationship, in which both parties - shippers and carriers - share a responsibility for finding solutions and sticking to agreements," she said.

    "And within this we have extended the charter to address the growing requirement of environmental sustainability of the maritime supply chain," said Ms van der Jagt.

    She noted that while price, efficiency and reliability remain the dominant sourcing criteria for shippers, sustainability, and within this the environmental record of carriers, is rapidly growing in importance as a criteria for choosing carriers.

    "Shippers expect shipping lines to address their own environmental record with ambitious targets to reduce emissions of green house gases and other pollutants through efficient operational practices and application of new technology," she said.

(source:http://www.shippingonline.cn/news/newsList.asp?classname=News)