Alphatron Marine and the environment
With global warming pushing environmental conservation into the mainstream, it is now more important than ever that we focus on this aspect in all of our future endeavours. As a major maritime industry partner, Alphatron Marine recognizes the importance of maintaining our environment in the most sustainable and efficient way. Through the design of our products, and the way we manufacture them, we place strong emphasis on their environmental impact and the ways we can continually challenge ourselves to help restore and maintain the balance of nature.
At Alphatron Marine, we are striving to make customer operations cleaner, safer and more energy efficient by pioneering new ways in technology, ultimately minimizing our footprint on the environment in the long run.
By ensuring increased energy efficiency for products that contribute to ships fuel emissions, we can reduce the risk of environmental pollution by offering our customers solutions that enable real-time support, lessening the need for travel and reducing our carbon footprint.
Awarding green ships
The pollution and health impact of the shipping industry is becoming a more significant problem day by day, especially since it acts as the backbone of the global economy. Alphatron Marine rewards Green Award certified ships with a 10% discount, which applies to a range of products and services for both sea and inland navigation vessels. Ships certified by Green Award are sustainable, environmentally friendly and they maintain and enhance best practices of the shipping industry. These are the qualities that are fully in line with Alphatron Marine’s principles. Along with the Green Award Foundation, we feel that these green initiatives sustain the health of our planet, both today and for the future.
Energy efficient instruments
We consider energy efficient instruments to be a better option in the run to lessening our global footprint – that is why we design our products to be efficient both mechanically and electrically. Energy consumption can have one of the most significant impacts on the environment, and this is a key concern for electronic devices that can add to this to a profound extent over time. One of Alphatron Marine’s goals is to create energy efficient products. As an example, the previous generation of our instruments used 40 watts, whereas the new AlphaLine Repeater line with 8.4-inch display uses a minimal 12 watts, and is designed to still be capable of handling a multitude of tasks in the maritime and industrial sector.
A greener autopilot Ongoing project
Customers are continuously seeking optimal accuracy, economy and stability when choosing an autopilot. Alphatron Marine is currently developing an adaptive autopilot model featuring a whole new level of intelligence, which has the ability to refine the steering throughout the voyage in response to the ship’s behaviour or weather conditions via an ECDIS input. By optimizing the system, it essentially means that less steering motions or rudder actions are required for operation, thus resulting in lower levels of speed reduction, minimal fuel consumption and therefore reducing emissions.
Transport
We look for ways to transport our flagship product AlphaBridge around the world, as efficiently as possible, transporting a variety of products to the shipyard or other locations, without taking up unnecessary volume and weight. With the nature of the AlphaBrige being a modular system, we have gained a wealth of experience in assembling the bridge in the workshop in Rotterdam. This means that all relevant product components and necessary cabling is installed and packed without the need to send separate boxes with equipment, tools and engineers to work on location. With these principles set in place, we are helping reduce CO2 emissions to a significant extent. What’s more, in 2015, we also increased the size of our workshop by 450m2, of which 350m2 is dedicated for console building, to further expand on our green principles.
Remote support
The AlphaEye offers real-time audio visual support from remote locations, helping to prevent or solve a problem quickly, and avoiding the need to send out one of our engineers across the world. With the Remote Maintenance System (RMS), accredited technicians can remotely link to the equipment onboard, to inspect, analyze, resolve or determine what actions are necessary to take next. The fault-finding process runs much smoother and we can have the correct spares available in the next port of call, saving on unnecessary courier services, and thus minimizing potential CO2 emissions.
Wave analyses
The JRC wave analyzer is able to assess wave direction, length, speed and height and can be utilized as a decision support system, delivering true benefit to officers and owners. With precise data at hand to adjust the course, you are able to immediately reduce human and hull stress from the impact of waves. Setting the course with minimum impact allows for increased safety onboard and also avoids container loss. It also saves a significant amount of fuel, which lessens the extent of excess emissions produced.
Office awareness
Alphatron Marine is always looking for alternative ways to improve our energy intake from renewable sources. In Rotterdam, we are powering operations for our facilities using 180 advanced solar panels on our rooftops, having retrieved over 125.000 kWh since July 2012. At the same time, we avoided 90.000 kilogram of additional CO2 emission.
Forests are masters at cleaning our air, purifying our water and even act as the perfect shelter for our wildlife. On a yearly basis we recycle 50.000 kilograms of paper. We work hard to minimize the use of paper in our office. At Alphatron Marine’s offices, we minimize printing, make product packages smaller and collect paper in our office for re-usage. Additionally, we are recycling more than 100 tons of garbage every year.
Other initiatives include gradual replacing of LED lighting in our office, which is now over 50% and is rapidly increasing. We also have a bicycle incentive program to stimulate employees cycling to and from work, especially for those living relatively close to the office. Next to this, we are supporting workers that are purposely travelling with public transport. The closest metro station is 3 kilometers from our office and we have a dedicated bus in the morning and late afternoon (amongst a few other companies in the vicinity) travelling to and from our business area to the metro station, at no applicable cost.
Alphatron Marine is proud to add these simple and inexpensive actions to our conservation campaign in taking steps towards reducing our carbon footprint and tackling global warming.