About Us and our Terms of Reference
Sofia
Sofia is passionate about planetary health. She has dedicated her career to use her skills, knowledge and experiences to create positive impact for the maritime industry. With a background from DNV and Maersk, she has built her name in the industry as a brave and trusted partner for change. She is an analyst at the core, and is renowned for her ability to untangle complexity and create common ground for fact-based strategic decision-making. She is a highly skilled communicator and facilitator.
Sofia has a MSc in Chemical Engineering from Lund Institute of Technology, a EMBA in Shipping & Logistics from Copenhagen Business School, and an Executive Diploma from Haas Business School, Berkeley. She is a certified Better Business Acceleration Leader. She is mentoring maritime women, and is advising startups. She engages in the local community where she lives, to explore opportunities for positive impact also there.
Conor
Conor is passionate about maritime people. And orcas. With half a lifetime of experience in the maritime and offshore sectors through Maersk, and with many years at sea, Conor has deep insight about ocean operations. A highly skilled communicator, he combines his knowledge of high risk maritime and offshore management with his profound curiosity for sustainable practices, to bring clarity and compassion to the challenges and opportunities for sustainable shipping.
Conor has an EMBA from Henley Business School, Diploma in Ship Management from Lloyds Maritime Academy, and Master Unlimited Certificate of Competency (Gas Endorsed) from Cork Institute of Technology. He is a certified Better Business Acceleration Leader. He is mentoring maritime women, and is advising startups.
Our Story
November 2024 marks 5 years working together in FMA. During this time we have engaged heavily with the maritime energy transition, including attendance at the IMO. We have engaged in full scope sustainability strategy development for maritime actors and undertaken further formal education in holistic sustainability. Our work has taken us to research and report writing, public speaking, webinar production and written media. We have even produced short films. We are ever more fixed on our objective to assist the maritime industry with transition to a sustainable future. Our favourite work is sustainability strategy development, where we join with an organisation for a time and lead them on a winding journey of discovery. We only step off only when a team is enlightened, organised and confident about their sustainability strategy, a strategy which should provide real positive impact, revealing opportunity and provide resilience.
Our Terms of Reference
Sustainability means:
UN - In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
These are our guiding throughs
Sustainable development to satisfy human needs means
UN - Sustainable development is how we must live today if we want a better tomorrow, by meeting present needs without compromising the chances of future generations to meet their needs. The survival of our societies and our shared planet depends on a more sustainable world.
The need for development means:
UN - Development is one of the main priorities of the United Nations. Development is a multidimensional undertaking to achieve a higher quality of life for all people. Economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development.
Our approach to maritime sustainability strategises around economic development, social development and environmental protection as interdependent and mutually reinforcing components as business strives to enable a higher quality of life for all people. We recognise enablement of higher quality of life as being the strongest revenue driver any business can have.
Our vision
Our vision is for a maritime industry that provides a fully sustainable service and also deploys its critical position to be a catalyst for sustainability globally.
This is how we move forward
Our objectives
✔ Effectively advocate for our approach
✔ Provide tangible and cost effective strategic development support for maritime entities which share our ToR and vision
✔ Close the gap between the current profile of the industry and what it potentially could be, as fast as possible
✔ Enable successful collaboration to unlock synergies with like minded organisations, within the industry and cross-sector
✔ Enable innovators in the area to reach their full potential
✔ Provide clarity for paths ahead, through research and analysis
We therefore aim
to provide
✔ Sustainability strategy
✔ Innovation support
✔ Collaboration avenues
✔ Research and analysis
We deploy
✔ Maritime industry expertise
✔ Sustainability competence
✔ In house strategic development methodology including Better Business - Better Future frameworks
✔ Our experience and network
Delivering - what and who
We engage with maritime entities who
✔ Want to develop a sustainability strategy which delivers real impact
✔ Are willing to collaborate within their value network
✔ Want to explore opportunity for sustainability leadership
✔ Would like to include sustainability excellence as part of a differentiated offering
Key deliverables
✔ A clear impact based sustainability strategy
✔ Reporting clarity and greenwashing prevention
✔ Path to internal capacity and outward clarity of message
✔ Opportunity revealed and risk mitigated
Key Value
The key ingredient to a successful outcome is sufficient alignment on workscope and commitment required from the team.
We depart when a team is enlightened, organised and confident about their sustainability strategy.
Our Boundaries and Our View
Reporting
✔ We are not specifically ESG consultants. ESG reporting as a financial factor is within our scope but we do not directly deliver ESG reporting support.
✔ We are not specifically CSRD consultants. We address CSRD within scope mainly as a perspective for evaluating impact.
✔ What we can do is assist with finding appropriate reporting solutions and interpretation of requirements.
✔ For us, reporting is very much a lens to examine the nature and outcome of sustainability activity, which should foremost look for impact.
Our perspective on the state of sustainability in the maritime sector
Here follows some headline opinions based on observation relative to our understanding. It requires support by peer reviewed high integrity research.
As an industry globally, ocean shipping is overwhelmingly compliance based with regard to sustainability.Despite high volumes of communication noise there is relatively little leadership for progression of true sustainability issues beyond compliance.
Decarbonisation (GHG emission reduction) and ESG (a reporting framework) are usually considered to cover and confused with sustainability.
There are few conversations about real positive impact, about reversing trends toward planetary boundary tipping points or hands on work for J&E community engagement for instance. We refer to J&E treatment outside the IMO GHG context here.
The industry is not educated, aware and highly concerned about the sustainability “why” as it is not affecting business.
The industry often considers its participation in growth as a positive sustainability factor, ignoring the downsides of trade growth when not engaged in responsibly.
Our Purpose
Purpose
Maritime like almost every industry, is measured by financial success. B Corp and similar structures based on impact business models are virtually non existent in maritime and the industry is barely aware of their definition or even existence.
We cannot expect the maritime industry to become impact based or adopt any B Corp philosophies overnight. This is a journey which must start with education.
We started FMA because we are extremely concerned for the future and see a current path which will not support humanity or the environment in any meaningful way. Certainly we do not see a trajectory of sustainable growth, instead a scenario where planetary decline creates a human competition cycle which tends to negate all the positive growth improvements gained in recent centuries. Indeed we see a lot of work required to restore the biosphere, not only protect it.
We see shipping leadership as having a critical role in reversing the negative trend. Few other industries have such potential influence due to their global influence and reach.