Di Gilpin: Wind Propulsion Could Save More Emissions Than the Whole of the UK Produces Each Year
Global shipping quietly moves almost everything we consume, from food and medicine to the chocolate, wine and trainers we take for granted, yet the industry produces roughly three times the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions. Di Gilpin, founder and CEO of Smart Green Shipping, has spent the last decade working to change that by bringing wind propulsion back to modern cargo vessels, not with old-fashioned sails, but with autonomous, retrofittable wingsails that can cut a ship's fuel costs and emissions by around 20% a year.
Gilpin's path to shipping was anything but conventional. Her career began on the launch team for the UK's first mobile phone network, before she moved through Formula 1, offshore yacht racing and fintech, each time working on problems people insisted were impossible to solve. That experience convinced her that the technology to tackle the climate crisis already exists. What's missing, she says, is the collective will to deploy it at scale.
Smart Green Shipping has now raised £10 million and is scaling its FastRig technology across a global fleet where more than 40,000 vessels could benefit from wind assistance. In this Q&A, Gilpin explains what inspired her to start the company, why shipping's emissions problem stays largely invisible to the public, and why women led businesses like hers still struggle to access the funding they need, despite consistently outperforming on returns.
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Q: What inspired you to start Smart Green Shipping?
Knowing that I could use my several decades experience in innovation to tackle the climate emergency.
I worked on the launch of mobile phones in the UK – when everyone said it’d never catch on! I worked in F1, in yacht racing, fintech and renewables all the time tackling challenges people said were impossible. I know we have all the solutions we need to make the critical difference to global warming we just don’t have sufficient will as a society to go all-in.
Q: What problem are you solving?
Global shipping is a significant emitter – accounting for 3 times the UK’s GHG contribution. Almost everything we consume is moved by sea. So far the sector is hidden offshore, no one really understands how dependent we are for fuel, food, medical supplies as well as all the stuff we like to consume like (speaking personally!) chocolate, wine and training shoes! There are more than 100,000 ships at sea and 40% of them, according the Department for Transport, could use wind propulsion to reduce emissions and, critically, cost.
When I say wind propulsion is not about old Clipper ships but space-age autonomous wingsails that can be swiftly retrofitted to existing ships reducing emissions and fuel costs by some 20% a year.
Just 1 of our FastRigs installed save the emissions of 100s of people – depending on what you like to do. Eat cheese, go on holiday? Check it out here: Smart Green Shipping
Q: What’s next for you?
We’ve raised £10m to date and we’re now scaling to create hundreds of jobs, UK exports with the opportunity to significantly reduce global emissions. We have the potential to generate huge returns for investors.
It is incredibly challenging to raise finance for this and similar large climate tech projects. There’s a known ‘missing middle’ funding gap for projects that actually make things, money really likes AI at present. Banks, investors, governments all shift the responsibility to someone else, all the while talking a good game about tackling climate change.
We are all experiencing in real time the impacts of heatwave after heatwave, and the breakdown of our critical infrastructure – hospitals, transport, education, housing – all of which costs money to fix. But we focus on the cost of investment in isolation rather than looking at the wider societal value of investing in solutions.
It’s also startlingly difficult for women-led businesses to get funding, only about 2% of total investment reaches women’s businesses, despite all the warm words about diversity. Crazy thing is women-led business show consistently better returns on investment.
Are you a woman leader with an inspiring journey to tell? Founded by Women is on a mission to elevate and amplify the voices of women making an impact.
If you’re breaking barriers, driving change, or paving the way for others, we’d love to feature your story. Get in touch with us today!
👉 hi@foundedbywomen.org
