Completing the circle: environmental impact of a vessel throughout the lifecycle

RD&I’s Renaud Gaudel and Martin Verboom discuss circularity and measuring the environmental impact of a vessel throughout the lifecycle

Renaud Gaudel and Martin Verboom are working together with colleagues in the RD&I department, and throughout Damen, towards increasing sustainability of Damen vessels. Amongst the projects they are working on are the Circular Crew Cabin and the EU-funded CirclesOfLife – two initiatives that provide a window on the environmental impact of a vessel throughout its life.

From noise & vibration to circularity

Renaud has worked for six years in RD&I as a Research Engineer, with a focus on noise and vibration. In his day-to-day work Renaud aims at improving comfort on board and reducing underwater noise. All the knowledge he gained got Renaud to thinking.

“I’ve looked at creating cabins from a lot of different angles – comfort, weight, costs. I’ve worked with a lot of suppliers and a lot of materials. You develop a broad understanding of cabins. Besides this, I am very interested in promoting sustainability at Damen and I thought it could be interesting to combine the two topics.”

Lessons learned offshore

The result was the beginning of a circularity working group. Within this, along with other colleagues, Renaud was joined by Martin Verboom. Martin spent eight years in the OSV division, first as an Industrial Designer and then as a Product Marketeer, before moving to RD&I where he hopes to further develop his knowledge and contribute to sustainability at Damen.

“As an Industrial Designer, you’re always trying to improve – especially from the sustainability perspective. Gaining a better understanding of the circularity of our vessels is an essential element in lowering the Product Environmental Footprint."

The Circular Crew Cabin project started out with the team members holding meetings during lunch breaks. “For around a year we would hold these informal gatherings, says Martin, “trying to figure out how we could shape the project so that we could work on it professionally, to the benefit of Damen.”

This soon developed into a Damen Corporate Research project consisting of four work packages. The first of these consists of defining circularity for a crew cabin, and finding a method to calculate the circularity index.

Selecting a ship

“We thought about two types of vessels,” states Renaud. “One of these is the Commissioning Service Operations Vessel (CSOV). These have more than 100 cabins onboard so, with the current signed contracts, in a very short space of time, you’re talking about over 600 cabins.

“The other vessel is a tug. They’ve only got a few cabins, but we build upwards of 50a year so, again, these quickly add up.”

Building a case

With that, before the end of 2025, the project will move on to its fourth, and final phase; construction of a demonstrator case. “I wanted us to come up with an object that people could actually see and touch. PowerPoint presentations and artist’s impressions are a good starting point, but we wanted to create something that would give people an understanding of what it really means to be circular,” says Renaud.

Completing the circle

The Circular Crew Cabin is a good example of the work the two, together with colleagues, and other parties, are undertaking as part of Damen's sustainability strategy. Another project that both are involved in is CirclesOfLife – Enhancing Material CIRCularity and Lower Emissions of Ship building processes in all phases OF the LIFE cycle. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (Contract No.: 101138013)

“To gain a complete understanding of a vessel’s footprint, it’s important that we consider the non-operational phase, production, maintenance and end-of-life,” states Martin.

Shipyard Environmental Performance Index

CirclesOfLife is contributing to this with the development of a Shipyard Environmental Performance Index (SEPI). “Increased ESG reporting requirements make it essential to develop knowledge of the environmental footprint of our products and shipyard processes throughout the lifecycle. Armed with the knowledge of the impact of our materials, processes, and the maintenance & repair of our vessels, will place us in a solid position to make improvements not only on a product, but also on a production level.

“This could also help to create a level playing field across Europe, with the maritime industry using the same tools to measure impact. You could see SEPI as a label for shipyards, giving vessel operators the chance to select the cleanest performing yard for the total lifecycle of the vessel.”

Cradle to Cradle Passport

The second element of the project is the creation of a Cradle to-Cradle Ship (C2C) Passport.

“The passport starts at the very beginning, detailing what materials are in the vessel, and the process of construction, and the CO2 emissions associated. To gain as full as picture as possible, we need to make the connection with the suppliers who manufacture the components and equipment for the vessel. Communication with the vessel owner is also important; as the vessel goes through life, experiencing repair and maintenance, the information will be updated.

“At the end of life, it becomes more straightforward to identify what materials can be recovered. In combination with Lifecycle assessment, the C2C passport can help shipowners and operators in selecting the improvements to the vessels which have the smallest environmental impact.” says Martin.

“There’s a lot of work taken place on reducing the CO2 of a vessel during the operational phase,” concludes Renaud. “You see this in the development of alternative fuel technology, and fully electric vessels. This is great, but we think it’s important to consider the full picture. These two projects are helping us to do that, by factoring in the impact of the vessel not only during its operational phase, but throughout its entire lifecycle – and beyond.”

On the top image from left to right: Renaud Gaudel and Martin Verboom