Three cargo owners — Google, Microsoft and Danish freight forwarder DSV — have joined the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance, whose December 2025 e-fuel tender contracts Hapag-Lloyd and North Sea Container Line to avoid 120,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over three years from 2027.

What does ZEMBA actually do?

The alliance pools demand from cargo owners before tendering for shipping services powered by low- and zero-emission fuels. Demand aggregation lets participating companies tackle Scope 3 emissions generated across their ocean freight supply chains — the indirect emissions that most corporate sustainability strategies now flag as the largest single line on a corporate carbon ledger.

Why is the structure needed?

Green-fuel capex is too large for any single shipper to underwrite, while the alternative-fuel premium over conventional bunker fuel is too steep to absorb without a contracted offtake. ZEMBA bridges the gap by aggregating cargo-owner demand, then tendering for emissions reductions rather than for specific vessel slots.

What did the latest tender deliver?

ZEMBA awarded its 2027 e-fuel contracts in December 2025 to two operators:

• Hapag-Lloyd — will deploy e-methanol on a transoceanic tradelane
• North Sea Container Line (NCL) — will use green ammonia on a northern European service

The combined emissions reduction across both projects is estimated at 120,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases over the three-year contract window starting in 2027.

How will cargo owners claim the savings?

Members will pay a premium for the emissions reductions generated by alternative-fuel voyages. ZEMBA will then allocate those environmental benefits through a book-and-claim system.

Under book-and-claim, a company claims a supply-chain emissions reduction without requiring its own containers to travel on the specific ship consuming the green fuel. The mechanism decouples the reduction from the physical cargo movement, much like renewable energy certificates separate the green attribute from the electrons in the grid.

Why does this matter for shippers and forwarders?

For freight buyers, ZEMBA membership offers a route to verified Scope 3 reductions without forcing every box onto a low-emission vessel. For ocean carriers, the tenders create contracted offtake volumes for alternative-fuel investments that would otherwise struggle to clear hurdle rates on spot-market economics.

DSV's addition is the most freight-relevant signal in the announcement. The Danish group, the world's third-largest forwarder by volume and a top-three player on the transatlantic and Asia-Europe trades, now has direct exposure to green-fuel procurement pricing on its contracted business — and a seat at the table when ZEMBA shapes the next tender.

What's the history of the programme?

ZEMBA's first tender was won by Hapag-Lloyd, which used liquefied biomethane to deliver the contracted emissions reductions. The new e-fuel contracts extend that model from a single fuel pathway into two additional chemistries at commercial scale — e-methanol for deepsea, green ammonia for shortsea.

What's the commercial catch?

The alliance model only works if members continue to pay the alternative-fuel premium once the marketing appeal of first-mover status fades. ZEMBA will also need to verify that the fuels contracted under book-and-claim are actually consumed on the agreed voyages, not double-counted across members' Scope 3 inventories.

For Hapag-Lloyd and NCL, the operational challenge is sourcing enough e-methanol and green ammonia at the contracted price to underpin transoceanic and northern European deployments from 2027. Bunker supply chains for both fuels remain thin, and production cost curves have not yet reached parity with very-low-sulphur fuel oil.

What comes next?

The premium ZEMBA members will pay above conventional bunker pricing — and the depth of the next tender pool — will determine whether the 120,000-tonne trajectory scales into a routine procurement channel for ocean-going cargo, or remains a niche contracting model for a handful of large corporates.