The Maritime SDG Accelerator is an intense business development programme as part of Danish Maritime and UNDP's project "The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a new platform in the maritime industry". The platform aims to accelerate maritime companies' work to develop new business solutions under the auspices of the SDGs. The Maritime SDG Accelerator kicks off at the end of June 2021 will run until end of the year with 10 Danish maritime companies across the Blue Denmark with customized tools from UNDP's SDG Accelerator for SMEs programme.
The SDGs provide a plan of action for addressing the world's most pressing challenges, and thereby also a framework for sustainable solutions.
The maritime sector needs to be an essential part of the solutions, and more and more companies recognize the SDGs as levers for innovation, growth, and better competitive performance. The SDGs also make up a powerful framework for strengthening the companies’ purpose narrative and for attracting talents, customers, and investors. The Maritime SDG Accelerator is built on the successful SDG Accelerators for SMEs (2018-2019), where 32 Danish industrial companies all used the SDGs as a driver for business innovation.
The participating companies are:
Viking Life-Saving Equipment, Svanehøj Group, Rohde Nielsen, MAN Energy Solutions Denmark, Insatech, PJ Diesel, Scanel, Fayard, and Danish Maritime.
The programme has three overall objectives:
- Promote sustainable innovation in maritime companies and develop at least one SDG solution per company - a product, a service, or a new sustainable business model.
- Use sustainable innovation as a basis for creating a broader understanding of how maritime companies can work with social and environmental sustainability, both locally and globally.
- Create a model that can inspire maritime companies outside the programme to get started with integrating the SDGs in their business.
The participating companies will work through a tested methodology and receive guidance to develop new SDG business solutions that address the challenges embedded in the SDGs.
