Geelen Counterflow and the GoodShipping Program

Geelen Counterflow and the GoodShipping Program have signed a 3 year contract that ensures that all of Geelen Counterflow's container ocean freight to customers around the world will be climate neutral through the use of sustainable biofuels for container ships.

Geelen Counterflow is a supplier of dryers and coolers for the feed and food industry. The company ships around 300 containers per year to customers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. This requires around 75 metric tons of fossil marine fuel and causes approximately 250 tons of CO2 emissions.

By joining forces with GoodShipping, Geelen Counterflow ensures that their annual ocean freight volume is decarbonized through the usage of sustainable biofuels. On Geelen's behalf, GoodShipping facilitates a fuel switch and substitutes the corresponding fossil fuel volume with these sustainable biofuels.  This way GoodShipping can certify that all equipment that Geelen Counterflow ships by containers to customers worldwide, is done with net zero emissions of CO2.

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The sustainable biofuels are supplied by GoodFuels Marine and are waste and residue based. GoodFuels' external and independent sustainability board makes sure these fuels meet the highest sustainability criteria. This means that the products GoodFuels supply do not cause deforestation or biodiversity loss. There are also no other, higher quality applications possible for these waste and residue streams.

Geelen Counterflow does not charge the costs for this fuel switch to its customers. Instead it pays for these costs from its sustainability budget which results from the application of an internal CO2 price of € 100 per ton of CO2 emissions. This internal carbon price is virtually charged to all activities that cause Geelen Counterflow to emit CO2. Fossil fuels have already been phased out from its office and company cars. As soon as factory heating switches to heat pumps in 2020 the entire site is close to being fossil-free. Electricity is generated by an array of over 3000 solar panels which generate the same amount of electricity as the complete Geelen site uses annually.

Excess solar energy (in summer and weekends) and deficits (mostly in winter) are exchanged with the local electricity coop Leudal Energie which includes windmills, a watermill and multiple solar arrays. Any remaining electricity consumption is supplied by 100% sustainable sources in the Netherlands. The CO2 emissions from employee travel, business travel, trucks etc. are virtually charged with €100 per ton, and the virtual proceeds are used to facilitate the above fuel switch to sustainable biofuels, amongst others.

Sander Geelen, Managing Director of Geelen Counterflow: 'The biggest challenge we face is to avoid global warming over 1,5 ⁰C above pre-industrial temperatures. For us that means phasing out fossil fuels from our own processes as soon as possible. However, the biggest impact we can have is to continue developing and installing dryers and coolers that run on renewable energy. Shipping these dryers and coolers around the world without causing carbon emissions is a challenge that GoodShipping will help us solve.'

by Geelen Counterflow