Since 1988, the Dutch flatfish fisheries are dealing with sustainability aspects in the vessel design process. In the first place at a time when social and political trends call for more attention to personal safety and working conditions and later extended with emphasis on a greener image and the triple P aspects (People, Planet, Profit). Nowadays due to the Paris climate agreement, every country has set their goals for radical emission reductions, even zero-emissions in 2050. This means that the CO2 targets are also becoming a (scientific) challenge developing new fishing vessel design methodologies including eco-technical solutions (B-design), personal safety and working conditions(a-design) and socio-technical strategies (a-design). An effective combined B-a design methodology does not exist yet, let alone also integrating the new circular economy (-) requirements. For such a new fishing vessel design process the evolving circular economy, principles (CE) are challenging with the ultimate sustainability goals: zero-emissions, zero-waste, zero-accidents on-board. The design experiences of the safety-integrated Beamer 2000 redesign (1990) and the sustainability-integrated MDV-1 new design (2015) are stimulating starting points.