- GREEN STRATEGY
- Sustainable Shipping Solutions
- GOVERNANCE
- OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
- SUSTAINABILITY REPORTS
MESSAGE FROM MANAGEMENT
Dear Stakeholders,
Welcome to ONE’s seventh annual sustainability report.
2023 has been another challenging yet fruitful year for ONE. As a global maritime leader, ONE operates in an increasingly complex and dynamic landscape defined by geopolitical instabilities, a volatile market, and the urgent need to address the growing implications of climate change.
As we navigate these unpredictable waters, we remain committed to upholding exemplary corporate governance and ethical business practices, delivering efficient and reliable services for our customers while mitigating the environmental impacts of our operations, fostering innovation and collaboration to address industry-wide sustainability challenges, and ensuring we have the best talent for these critical endeavours.
Achieving success and purpose goes beyond maximising short-term returns for ONE. As a responsible and forward-thinking organisation, we seek to create sustainable long term value for all stakeholders and to build resilience in the business and industry. We are proud of the progress we have made to advance our sustainability agenda despite the challenges. This report presents a snapshot of our performance in the past year.
Operational Excellence through Innovation, Efficiency and Reliability
Our relentless pursuit of operational excellence from the outset has been ONE’s unique value driver. Our focus is on the safe, efficient and reliable transportation of goods for our customers. We strive to innovate and develop solutions that provide a frictionless and integrated customer experience while safeguarding against potential disruptions in a world of growing instability.
ONE’s digitalisation roadmap has guided us in building new digital capabilities in our quest to become a data-driven enterprise. Building on our previous successes, we have embarked on a journey to transform our internal and external system architectures. In 2023, we introduced our cloud-first infrastructure policy, shifting our critical systems to the cloud, increasing resilience against system failure and cyberthreats while improving energy efficiency. We are also actively forging partnerships to drive an industry-wide shift towards digitalisation. As a founding member of SGTraDex, an interoperable common digital infrastructure, we encourage the increased adoption of standardised information flows and visibility, which can greatly benefit all stakeholders within the industry.
We hope to leverage our collective expertise and resources to champion transformative solutions that will shape the future of our industry.
Shaping the Future toward Net Zero
The maritime industry has already begun to face the severe impacts of climate change through extreme weather leading to port damage, loss of cargo and shipping delays. Addressing climate change would be a monumental effort with the critical transition towards sustainable shipping. We have made the commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, with interim targets detailed through our Green Strategy and Decarbonisation Roadmap, prioritising five key areas: carbon management, operational efficiency, green investment, alternative fuels and ecosystem building.
To achieve our decarbonisation goals, we recognise the need to take immediate action even as we work on long-term solutions. These initiatives focus on improving operational and fleet fuel efficiencies through vessel modifications such as the bulbous bow and bow windshield, as well as the optimisation of auxiliary machinery operations directly leading to emissions reductions.
In 2023, we have obtained the Approval In-Principle (AiP) to construct Ammonia Dual-fuelled vessels along with an investment in 13,000 TEU methanol dual-fuelled vessels as part of our commitment to invest in greener assets and technologies. Through this, as well as our participation in the GCMD-led ammonia bunkering pilot safety study, we seek to accelerate the search for a viable alternative maritime fuel. We also continue to participate in industry-wide collaborations towards decarbonisation as co-chair of the World Shipping Council and participating in initiatives such as the Port of Los Angeles-Port of Shanghai Green Shipping Corridor.
Our People-Centred Strategy
People are at the centre of all we do at ONE. As a key driver of ONE’s strategy now and in the future, we invest in our people and their overall wellbeing. The launch of ONE Academy in 2022 has been an immense success providing the avenues and support structures needed to tailor career progression and learning opportunities for all employees at ONE. We continue to progressively enhance our programmes with employee feedback to provide wide ranging and exciting opportunities for development and exposure.
We also seek to contribute to the causes and communities our people are passionate about and defend the human and labour rights of all individuals. Where we operate, we empower our employees to give back to the local communities in ways ONE can best contribute. From environmental preservation to providing aid to vulnerable communities, I am heartened by the various initiatives, volunteering and donations across our offices. Amongst many others, an initiative I am particularly proud of is Project Maji. In Ghana and Kenya, ONE has funded sustainable water solutions such as convenient water dispensing systems, using rapid sand filtration and the installation of water kiosks for rural schools. These solutions have benefitted over 7,500 people, improving access to clean water for the local communities.
Beyond our immediate workforce, ONE has made efforts to support frontline ship crew. This is also part of our commitment to uphold universal principles on human and labour rights throughout our supply chain, and what we regard as a fundamental aspect of being a responsible business.
ESG Excellence through Effective Governance
Our sustainability strategy is grounded in robust governance structures and principles. Beyond compliance, ONE’s approach to conducting business focuses on an uncompromising stance to always “do the right thing”. We continue to uphold our zero-tolerance stance against bribery, corruption or any form of anti-trust and anti-competitive activity by undertaking appropriate compliance and risk management processes. This extends to the management of cybersecurity as we become increasingly reliant on digitalisation.
In 2023, we took a significant step to align our sustainability reporting with our financial year (FY), from a calendar year (CY) basis for the past six years. As the integration of sustainability and business operations continues to evolve, this will enable ONE to harmonise our strategic planning and foster integrated decision-making. As new sustainability reporting regulations continue to emerge, ONE strives to provide greater transparency and comparability of our disclosures to stakeholders, ensuring that ONE remains accountable to deliver on our sustainability strategy.
Realising our Sustainability Vision
As we steer towards the future of a more sustainable maritime industry, we must remain steadfast in our commitment and conviction even as we enter uncharted waters. The progress that we have made so far would not be possible without the efforts of our dedicated employees, and the trusted partnerships with our partners, suppliers and customers. We would like to thank all our stakeholders for your continued support. In the pursuit of a greener horizon, we will continue to seek and foster meaningful collaborations to drive change. I hope we can all work together to chart the course for a sustainable future.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Nixon
Chief Executive Officer
VISION AND COMMITMENT
While shipping is universally recognized as one of the most efficient means of commercial transport, the industry still has significant impacts on the environment and society that need to be managed. This is compounded by the rise of international trade driving continued growth in maritime traffic, which is expected to translate to a nearly threefold increase in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, according to estimations by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
As the sixth largest container carrier in the world by fleet size, ONE recognizes the role we can play to mitigate such impacts and advance sustainability efforts in the industry. In 2019, we developed our sustainability strategy to focus our efforts around four areas of priority:
1. Environment
2. Social
3. Governance
4. Operational Excellence
These priorities are based on the material sustainability topics that drive long-term value for our business and our stakeholders. Underpinning our priorities, is our Business Credo, which forms the core of ONE’s commitment to embedding responsible business practices.
ONE recognizes our role in providing safe and reliable services while meeting our customers’ expectations and maintaining their trust. At the helm of our brand, ONE’s Business Credo enshrines eight principles reflecting how we want to do business.
ONE’s Business Credo
1. Good-faith business activities
2. Environmental and safety initiatives
3. Enhanced security
4. Compliance with laws and ordinances, respect for human rights
5. Exclusion of antisocial activities
6. Disclosure of information and communication with society
7. Social contribution activities
8. Preservation of favourable work environments
ONE’S COMMITMENT TO THE UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACT (UNGC) PRINCIPLES
With our broad business activities spanning across 120 countries around the world, ONE is inherently confronted with worldwide ethics, human rights, labour and environmental issues, be it from a direct or an indirect manner. In turn, to responsibly mitigate the impacts of our operations on the global environment, ONE has sought to become a member of the Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS), the local chapter of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) network.
As a member, ONE supports the ten UNGC Principles and has pledged to adopt and promote sustainable and responsible business practices. This means operating in ways that, at a minimum, meet fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The Sustainable Development Goals are a suite of 17 actionable guidelines for all nations to adhere regardless of their income status, for the promotion of global prosperity and environmental protection. The initiative accentuates the importance of counteracting poverty which is perceived as a barrier to economic growth and emphasises on the tackling of social and environmental issues, as the precursors of the problem.
As a corporate member of Global Compact Network Singapore, ONE commits to the SDGs via the incorporation of the recommended best practices to its business strategies and operations.
While our business activities touch on all 17 interrelated SDGs, directly or indirectly, we have identified four priority SDGs (as shown below) which we believe we can have the biggest impact on through our core business activities as well as through partnering with others. These SDGs are of greatest relevance and alignment to ONE’s business and sustainability priorities, representing opportunities where we can best contribute to sustainable development. In addition, we identified SDGs 4, 5, 8, 12, 16 and 17 as also relevant to ONE’s overall sustainability agenda, constituting secondary focus areas where ONE’s activities can positively contribute to.
