8 MAY 2012 A chocolate delivery by a carbon-neutral boatSustainable shipment of organic chocolate by the Grenada Chocolate Company Care for a piece of real organic chocolate? In association with the Dutch company FairTransport, the Grenada Chocolate Company made the first ever carbon-neutral shipment. The green shipment goes by a sailboat named ‘Tres Hombres’, a trade wind-powered sailing vessel. With no engine, the boat is depending on the trade winds across the Atlantic. The Chocolate Company, specialized in making pure organic chocolate, shipped five tons of organic chocolate from Grenada to New York City (, England, Portsmouth, and of course Amsterdam.) The first batch of chocolate and the company’s founder Matt Green, were picked up in March. Even though the exact date of arrival was depending on the trade winds, the delivery took place in early April. Using small batches, solar energy, chemical-free cacao and in addition the green shipment, it is a company that truly cares for the environment. So it may take a while, but at the end you will have a real piece of organic delicacy, shipped by a CO2 free sailboat. The New Age of Sailsee TED talk here | the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages.” L. Rohter, New York Times. While globalization was favored by cheap and efficient transport systems, the new relationships between transport and energy are likely to restructure the global structure of production and distribution towards regionalization. There is often a compromise between speed and energy consumption, related to the desired economic returns. Passengers and high value goods can be transported by rapid but energy intensive modes since the time component of their mobility tends to have a high value, which conveys the willingness to use more energy. Economies of scale, mainly those achieved by maritime transportation, are linked to low levels of energy consumption per unit of mass being transported, but at a lower speed. This fits relatively well freight transport imperatives, particularly bulk. Comparatively, air freight has high energy consumption levels linked to high speed services. Transportation markets are particularly impacted by these three energy issues:
|