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Ellie Besley-Gould, CEO of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative discusses aligning incentives, improving crew welfare, and scaling sustainable shipping solutions globally

To begin, could you share details of your career history and how you came to be in your current role? I’ ve spent fifteen years working across climate, international development and commercial sustainability- always in the space between where we need to move to build a sustainable and resilient future and the challenge of translating that into delivery at scale.

Shipping is one of the most extraordinary industries on the planet. It is the backbone of global trade, constantly adapting, full of people who genuinely care about getting this right. What drew me to SSI is the opportunity to work alongside that ambition and help turn it into action. That felt like exactly the right next challenge.

Why was the Sustainable Shipping Initiative created, and what impact is it having on making shipping more sustainable? SSI started from a straightforward recognition: the transformation shipping needs is too big for any one actor. You can’ t regulate your way there from one government or invest your way there from one company. The only approach that works is aligning commercial practice, financial flows and operational standards across the whole value chain together.

What we’ ve learned is that the barrier is rarely ambition. Individuals and organizations want to act but the challenge is in translating intent into decisions that are commercially viable.

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