My name is Joachim, I’m 56 years old and work as a chief officer on board the S/V AVONTUUR. Before I worked as a captain on commercial ships carrying heavy lift cargoes and burning a lot of heavy fuel oil. International regulations are already addressing the problem of air pollution by ships but in my opinion not in an efficient way and very slowly. E.g. Emission Control Areas (ECAs) are declared with good intentions, but with side effects such as ships deviate from their shortest route in order to avoid the ECAs, in the end burning more heavy fuel than before.

Moreover, a lot of useless transportation is done around the world by ships, the transport being so cheap as to favour long haul transport over local production.

Personally, I believe that the only way to change things is starting with myself. I wanted to live more authentic in line with my thoughts. I already try this in my everyday life by not having a car, heating my house using solar power and wood pellets, and buying goods from sustainable production whenever possible.

When I got into contact with TIMBERCOAST, I saw the great chance to be more authentic in my professional life too. I am proud to be a part of a project which demonstrates that sustainable transport is possible.  Furthermore, raises the question – Do we really need to transport that many goods around the world as we are doing today?

I hope to help start these discussions and thoughts which can lead to a more responsible use of the earth’s resources.

– Joachim

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Pictures by Verena Brüning.