ABSTRACT
The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), commonly known as the Brundtland Commission, gave the definition of sustainability in its report in 1987 as ‘Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Sustainability, therefore, includes all technologies and their effects on the environment. Technology whose use is intended to mitigate or reverse the effects of human activity on the environment is known as green technology. Needless to say that transportation is a key element of technological development since transport is keenly related to trade and movement of goods and people. Furthermore, 90% of the world’s trade is done through the seaborne trade. Therefore, marine transportation should have a major effect on the environment. The technological development that reduces environmental effects due to seaborne transportation is commonly known as green ship technology. Besides, there are a number of industrial activities at sea such as oil exploration and production, ocean mining, energy extraction from the oceans, and so on. Such activities should not also cause environmental degradation. And the rate at which shipping tonnage is increasing across the world (Figure 13.1) gives further impetus towards green technology application in shipping. Whereas care during construction, operation and dismantling must be taken to reduce the effects of environmental degradation; all this has its origin in the design of the artefact and therefore, sustainable design or green ship technology applications have become very important at the design stage.
