Discussing the future of shipping with leading academia. ONE's new challenge "Container Shipping Summit"

Since last year, ONE has been working to hold the "Container Shipping Summit," a collaborative project between industry and academia. It is a forum where employees of ONE and academia from universities of various countries gather to discuss what is important for the future of container shipping, issues that need to be addressed, and solutions to these issues. Following the two summits held last year, the third summit is scheduled to be held in this March. We interviewed one of the organizers involved in the planning and operation of the summit to find out how it got started in the first place.

We want to examine the complex issues facing shipping from a high and broad perspective.

From 2020 to 2022, the global supply chain, which includes container shipping, suffered a major disruption on an unprecedented scale as a result of the pandemic.

"Most goods essential to everyday life, such as clothing, food, and household appliancesetc, are imported and exported via the 'sea route' using containers. We truly understood once again the importance of the container shipping industry's mission to create a stable logistics network that is unshakable even in the face of infectious diseases and other risks."

Yoshiyuki Fujiwara, a manager at ONE who is involved in corporate strategy and also in the ONE ACADEMY programs, , looks back at this situation.

In addition, in terms of the mission of the container shipping, efforts to prevent global warming is another challenge that must be seriously addressed.

"CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted from container vessels have a considerable impact on the earth and its oceans. It was also necessary to address such issues as the reduction of greenhouse gases and the preservation of the marine environment."

However, materiarizing stable shipping at all times and environmental issues are both large-scale issues that are difficult to address with only the knowledge and experience of a single company. As a result, ONE came up with the idea of finding a breakthrough in these issues through free and vigorous discussions with people from diverse backgrounds.

"In order to envision a future for container shipping that is not bound by conventional methods, we felt it was necessary to exchange ideas on complex issues with people who have a wide range of knowledge and experience. We thought it was important to analyze the current state of container shipping from an academic standpoint in order to face the challenges from a high and broad perspective. In that sense, we decided to invite academia from universities and other institutions as partners for discussion."

What concept should be used to attract a diverse group of academia ?

The project began with the vision of creating a platform for discussion with academia in order to address larger issues on a broader scale. However, as this was an unprecedented challenge, there were many difficulties before the project could be realized. 

"Although I was entrusted with the planning and operation of the summit in the first place, I had no previous experience in organizing anything like this, especially an event involving outside parties, and my original roll and responsibilities did not involve much in the way of event organization. However, ONE's style is to have fun and say, 'AS ONE, WE CAN' and keep trying new things. Although I was at a loss initially, many people supported me and we worked together to move forward step by step.”

The first challenge was setting the theme for the discussion.

“We were faced with the dilemma that if we set the theme of the discussion to a specific field, we would be simultaneously narrowing the scope of the academia’s field and preventing discussions from a broader perspective. In order to overcome this dilemma, we enlisted the help of copywriters, web designers, and other creators to help us verbalize our concept."

Initially, they were supposedly envisioning a party-like event in their minds, but they had a very hard time defining what kind of concept they wanted to achieve. By defining the naming concept of the "Container Shipping Summit, I believe we were able to create a common understanding that this is a forum for discussing major issues from a higher perspective," explained Fujiwara.

In line with this concept, they recruited participants through the connections of their employees, resulting in leading academia from universities in Japan working in the fields of "vessels," ", maritime" and "environment" to participate.

Discussions on ESG and technology. Start of the "innovation platform."

The first summit was held in Dejima, Nagasaki, on March 16, 2023.

Sixteen experts in the fields of ESG, shipping, supply chain, and marine engineering, as well as the heads of departments responsible for corporate strategy, environment, operations, fleet management, and human resources development from ONE Singapore's headquarters took part in the event.

The main focus of the summit was to exchange ideas. The two themes for the group discussion were "the future of container shipping from an ESG perspective" and "technologies that will change the future of container shipping."

"At the first summit, our goal was to form a group of colleagues who could think together about the future of container shipping, so we broadened the topics for discussion. It was striking to see employees of ONE and academia actively exchanging ideas on issues such as decarbonization, building an efficient and stable supply chain, and environmental protection."

Approximately five months after the first summit, which turned out to be an overwhelming success, the second summit was held on August 3, 2023. The summit was held in Singapore, one of the world's leading maritime industrial cities and the home of ONE's headquarters. This time, academia from Singapore were invited in addition to those from Japan, and the number of participants increased to 90. The discussion themes were broadened to include four additional topics, such as "human resource development in the maritime sector."

Meeting with young talents who will be responsible for the future of shipping. And to a more global future.

The results of the Container Shipping Summit seem to be sprouting little by little. Fujiwara explains the specific results and future prospects as follows.

"We are working on joint research and collaborative experiments on ESG and container operations in general with several universities with which professors we worked with at the Container Shipping Summit are affiliated. There are also opportunities for employees of ONE to serve as guest lecturers at universities. I have also had the opportunity to teach courses on container shipping at several universities. We are also planning to accept internship students from various universities in the future."

In both cases, the connections created at the summit sparked the opportunities. Meeting with the young talents who will be responsible for the future of shipping has certainly been a great blessing.

Now that they have achieved their goal of "creating a platform for innovation," their next goal is "global expansion".

"We would like to develop connections with overseas universities and companies. By creating a summit that is open to the global community, we believe that future-oriented discussions can be held from even more diverse perspectives. It would be great to further develop the summit so that we can create an even more global network."

Fujiwara's goal for the future is to connect contacts in various Asian countries and build a network from dots to lines, and eventually to a surface-like network.

"There are those who are dedicated to research for the future in the world of shipping. It goes without saying, but there are few opportunities to meet such people in the course of one's daily life, as one deals with the work in front of them. Once again, I feel the importance of human relationships, and I look forward to a future that will develop from these relationships." A strong enthusiasm to update the future of container shipping was felt, starting with encounters that transcend company boundaries.