The Sea Cargo Charter (SCC) has established a standardised schema for the exchange of emission-related voyage data, primarily to support data transfer between carriers and charterers.
The SCC is an association of 33 charterers and operators, including some of the world’s largest energy, agriculture, mining, and commodity trading companies, that have committed to working together to improve transparency in reporting of shipping emissions in line with United Nations decarbonisation targets.
Emission data exchange between carriers and charterers has typically relied on spreadsheet templates, manual data scraping, and bespoke automations developed by individual companies.
The group notes that, as the industry increasingly seeks to digitalise reporting processes, system-to-system data exchange has emerged as a clear opportunity to automate while improving accuracy.
The SCC’s new JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) schema is designed to enable better system-to-system communication across counterparties, reducing reliance on spreadsheet-based processes and improving data validation. JSON is a common data interchange format widely used across digital systems, flexible enough to allow data fields to be added or adapted over time as reporting needs evolve.
In order to implement the schema, companies must perform an initial configuration or mapping within their own systems. Once in place, the same standardised message can be exchanged with other carriers and charterers, allowing data to flow directly into systems of record while significantly reducing manual intervention and duplication of effort.
The new JSON schema was developed by the SCC Data Digitalisation Working Group, which includes signatories Dow, ADM, Stolt Tankers, Klaveness Combination Carriers, and Smart Freight Centre.
“When it comes to reporting and data validation, standardisation is the prerequisite to scalability and automation. By developing this JSON schema, SCC has made a significant advancement towards easier, more efficient, and more scalable emissions data transfer,” said Lance Nunez, Chair of the Sea Cargo Charter Data Digitalisation Working Group.
The working group created a supporting technical document to help signatories implement the schema across their data collection and reporting processes. The SCC’s existing Excel-based data collection templates will remain available for parties unable to support the new process.
