Smart Green Shipping Roundtable Aims to Drive Scotland’s Green Growth
Reflecting on the International Maritime Organization’s World Maritime Day theme, ‘Our Ocean, Our Obligation, Our Opportunity’, the event, organised with the support of the Scottish Government, brought together key stakeholders from maritime, investment, technology, and policy. They explored how Scotland can seize the economic opportunity of scaling globally exportable clean maritime solutions by closing the gap between R&D funding and commercialisation.
Glasgow, 25 September 2025: Smart Green Shipping (SGS), pioneers of retrofittable Clydebuilt wind-assist technology for global shipping, convened a high-level roundtable to address critical scale up (Series A) investment gaps. These threaten Scotland’s opportunity to capitalise on the trillion-dollar global market opportunity offered by shipping’s green transition. The discussion, moderated by one of Scotland’s most highly regarded maritime business experts, Patrick Carnie, focused on end-to-end funding and support for Scotland’s proven, globally exportable clean maritime technologies. These can stimulate economic growth for Scotland and make significant contributions to emissions reduction.
Smart Green Shipping Founder & CEO Diane Gilpin said, “Last year SGS built, tested and proved, through extensive sea trials, that FastRigs, our robust Scottish built lightweight, automated wingsails save double-digit emissions on suitable ship types. The Department for Transport estimates up to 40,000 ships in the global fleet could deploy wind-assist solutions.”
"SGS exemplifies the scale of the opportunity for Scotland from global shipping’s green transition. We’ve collaborated across Scottish maritime through deep co-operation with Caley Ocean Systems and the Malin Group. Having benefitted from Scottish Enterprise support in the high-risk R&D stage, we’d love to be able to build out this global opportunity by working with National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland to design and deploy new high value manufacturing systems to underpin new business models that are driven by novel digital systems that optimise performance and innovative financial and legal arrangements. We’d like to see public investment recouped and reinvested into future innovation. Building on Scotland’s deep expertise in energy and maritime we can create good green jobs across Scotland and the wider UK, kickstarting economic growth, contributing to the UK becoming a green energy superpower,” she concluded.
Held at the historic Malin Group Rotunda building in Glasgow, the manufacturing roundtable brought together senior representatives from the Scottish Government Economic Growth Unit, Scottish Enterprise, National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland, National Wealth Fund, the National Shipbuilding Office, Malin Group, Caley, Drax, Greenbackers, G-NRGY, Zem Fuels & SESL, the University of Strathclyde, and the Scottish North American Business Council. Held under the Chatham House Rule, the discussions centred on unlocking barriers to growth, creating the right conditions for innovation, and developing financial support mechanisms to help scale clean maritime technologies. Participants also explored the potential payback for Scotland — from green jobs and skills to intellectual property and exports — while highlighting wider business opportunities and long-term impacts across the economy.
Patrick Carnie, Non-Executive Director at the Scottish Maritime Cluster, said “In Scotland, as in many countries, too few people see the scale of the opportunity before us — we suffer from ‘seablindness’. This has long limited the engagement of investors, policymakers, and innovators in the Maritime sector. Yet there are signs of change. As UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport Keir Mather MP highlighted at London International Shipping Week, government now recognises the need to tackle scale-up barriers if we are to fully capitalise on maritime markets and the transition to zero emissions.”
He continued, “By building on Scotland’s strengths in renewables, oil and gas, manufacturing, and shipbuilding, we can drive a broader industrial shift, unlock green jobs, develop future-ready skills, and secure Scotland and the UK’s leadership in a sustainable, globally connected maritime economy. Targeted investment in proven, near-to-market technologies is a significant catalyst for wider, long-term benefits. Successful clean maritime businesses create high value, sustainable jobs across manufacturing, deep tech, legal, financial, intellectual property, and a variety of other sectors. This can reinforce Scotland and the UK’s leadership in this vital sector while driving sustainable economic growth across the world.”
Smart Green Shipping will publish a report, summarising the discussions and setting out the next steps and actions agreed at the roundtable.