Sustainability

Making impact as a responsible value creator

Embedding sustainability at Vespasian Shipping LLC goes far beyond mere guidelines—it’s a core part of our culture. Based in USA, we raise awareness on issues from environmental stewardship to human rights, inviting both our team and external partners to actively join in sustainability initiatives and take ownership of change. We believe that even small projects can be powerful catalysts for progress. By engaging our colleagues and collaborating with trusted business partners, we continue to make a positive impact as the connected partner for sustainable storage solutions.

Employee sustainability

At Vespasian Shipping LLC in USA, our industry is continuously evolving. We empower our team to embrace emerging technologies, hone new skills, and build upon their existing expertise. That’s why we offer a comprehensive range of training courses—ensuring every employee has the opportunity to broaden their horizons and excel in a dynamic environment.

Reporting on progress

Sustainability is deeply integrated into our culture and considered in everything we do. Our sustainability reports reflect our sustainable and responsible business practices, our current performance, the progress we have made, and our ambitions for further improvement. We have identified the 13 goals below to concretize our commitment to responsible business management.

Goal 1 | Energy and CO2

We recognize that the CO2 emissions from our activities have an impact on climate and biodiversity. Our goal is to be CO2-neutral by 2030 for scope 1 and 2 emissions and by 2040 for scope 3 emissions. Our strategy is based on a multi-tiered approach: avoid, reduce, replace, and compensate.

Goal 2 | VOC emissions

Some of the products we store are classified as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which means that they easily evaporate at ambient temperature and can be hazardous for people and the environment. Sources of VOC emissions include storage tank breathing losses from routine operations and venting, and emissions from loading and cleaning tanks. We recognize that the amount of VOC emissions fluctuates as it is strongly dependent on the type of products we store, the number of tank cleaning activities and roof landings, outside temperature, etc. Our goal is to implement best practice engineering standards and improve operational efficiency, reducing VOC emissions to as low as reasonably practicable.

Goal 3 | Biodiversity

We consider the preservation of biodiversity a crucial element in enabling the world to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, to help mitigate and remove greenhouse gas emissions, to adapt to climate change risks, and to maintain ecosystem services. Our goal is to contribute to preserve biodiversity by reducing CO2 emissions and by supporting nature-based solutions. Nature-based solutions to climate change involve conserving, restoring, or optimally managing ecosystems to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Ecosystems reduce climate change by capturing CO2 from the air and sequestering it in plants, soils, and sediments. They also help protect communities from the effects of climate change. We expect that for all our terminals, a biodiversity and water stress risk assessment as well as an action plan is in place. This includes our support to a local biodiversity or nature conservation project.

Goal 4 | Resource efficiency and circularity

We strive to source materials responsibly, reduce water consumption and minimize waste. Next to the energy efficiency plans in place, we expect to conduct water efficiency and waste studies for all terminals in 2024. Our goal for 2030 is to not have any LBC-generated waste sent to landfills.

Goal 5 | Pollution prevention

As the custodian of our customers’ products, we have a responsibility to protect the environment and the welfare of our neighbors and the communities in which we operate. To this end, we have controls in place to prevent unintended releases of product, and environmental standards which are founded on the precautionary approach, focusing on prevention rather than remediation. Our goal is to have no unintended releases of product to the environment.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) are global baselines in different areas of sustainability. Specifically SDG 8, 9, 12, and 16 are areas that relate to LBC’s operations. The most prominent of these is SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production). By focusing on sustainable consumption and production principles, we have brought improvement to the fields of process, assets, technological applications and innovation, including cost savings. We see this as an opportunity for us to connect with our business partners and jointly develop improvement solutions in the chemical industry as well as the ports we operate in.

United Nations Global Compact

Intertwined with the SDGs are the Ten Principles to responsible business of the United Nations Global Compact. Since 2021, Vespasian Shipping LLC has been committed to the UN Global Compact corporate responsibility initiative and its principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.

Partner UK Sustainable Business Network (UKSBN)

The UK Sustainable Business Network (UKSBN) is a coalition of over 200 progressive companies spanning sectors such as finance, technology, energy, and retail. Established in 2002, UKSBN unites organizations that are committed to embedding sustainability at the core of their operations.

As partners within a vibrant network of sustainable leaders, we actively drive innovation in the new economy by focusing on environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and economic resilience. Through collaboration and continuous improvement, we aim to create a greener, more equitable future for the UK and beyond.