Boat Bike Tours has been actively working for years to make its operations, both in the office and on board its ships, more sustainable. To accelerate this process, a foundation called Greenway was set up in 2024.
To this end, Boat Bike Tours annually reserves part of its income for this foundation (subsidy monies can also be deposited in this fund).
The Greenway Foundation consists of an enthusiastic group of do-gooders and pursues the following goals:
- Encouraging projects that reduce the ecological footprint
- Encouraging projects to increase knowledge in the field of sustainability
- Developing sustainable mooring facilities for cycle-boating vessels
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By 2024, the following initiatives have been supported:
– 6 ships run on HVO, namely Flora, La Mar, Lena Maria, Gandalf, De Nassau, De Magnifique II. (HVO stands for ‘Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil’ and is a new type of diesel fuel. It is made from waste vegetable oils and residual waste. It no longer contains a drop of fossil oil.) The Foundation pays the difference in price with regular diesel. The aim, besides reducing the CO2 footprint, was to test how the different engines held up. We hear almost only positive sounds. HVO is clean, does not smell and engines and stoves have functioned well.
– On the ships Flora and De Holland, the ‘measuring is knowing’ pilot has started. Fuel consumption and shore power consumption are tracked using fuel meters and KWH meters. The data are collected via Wi-Fi, forwarded to Net Zero Cloud and visualised via a dashboard that can be read on a laptop. Besides providing insight for skipper and owner (which will hopefully lead to more economical sailing), it provides BBT with data in a very easy way to calculate the CO2 footprint in an objective and reliable way. In the future, keeping CO2 records will become compulsory for companies like BBT, and larger shipping companies will also have to comply with this mandatory CO2 reporting in due course.
By 2025, Greenway Foundation has the following plans:
– A deal has been struck with a supplier of HVO which means that about 85% of all fuel used will consist of 100% HVO. Greenway Foundation again pays the price difference.
– Further roll out ‘measuring is knowing’ project. We aim to involve all ships in this project in 2 winters and install the necessary equipment.
– Subsidy pilot: equip one or two ships with an on-board purification system.
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In addition, Greenway Foundation retains financial scope for new plans and invites shipping companies to submit innovative project plans that can reduce Boat Bike Tours’ footprint.
The board decides whether the fund will contribute financially to these plans.
The board consists of 2 ship owners, 2 employees of BBT and someone who represents interests of the Professional Charter Shipping Industry.
