This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation.

For centuries, tall sailing ships quietly navigated the planet’s waterways, trading and delivering needed goods. Powered by wind, this sustainable mode of transportation endured until the advent of fossil fuels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries transformed global shipping. Today, propelled by oil and gas, behemoth cargo ships criss-cross oceans, transporting billions of products everyday and generating roughly three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

It was against this backdrop that Eileen Banyra, owner and founder of Hudson Soil Company in Kerhonkson, New York, came up with a unique way of delivering her organic compost to customers. Echoing the bygone legacy of those long-lost sailing ships of yesteryear, the Apollonia, a 64-foot-long schooner, works with local producers, including Banyra, to deliver goods to communities along or close to the Hudson River. 

“This was the way things used to travel. They used to go by ship, they used to go up the river on barges,” Banyra says. “The cool thing about the Apollonia is they really sail, they don’t turn their engines on at all.”

The Apollonia is not alone. Around the world, sailing ships and wind-assisted ships are being reimagined as a carbon-neutral alternative to conventional fossil fuel-reliant cargo ships. Starting in the summer of 2025, the Apollonia will not just carry the goods of small-scale producers and artisans to local customers, but upon arrival in New York harbor will transfer its cargo to the 170-foot Grain de Sail II for transport across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Founded in 2010 in Morlaix, France, by brothers Olivier and Jacques Barreau, Grain de Sail’s vision was to craft exceptional chocolates and coffees while minimizing environmental impact. At the heart of this vision was an ambitious goal: to build and operate the world’s first modern cargo sailboat.

The company currently has two ships: Grain de Sail I, with a payload capacity of 50 tons, travels at eight knots and is able to carry 26 pallets of approximately four feet by three feet. The larger Grain de Sail II is faster, at between 12 and 13 knots, and can carry over 200 pallets. Nowadays the ships carry much more than just chocolates and coffee. The company has a steady stream of customers from a variety of sectors including the wine, fashion and cosmetic industries. Both ships sail between Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, with transatlantic crossings taking approximately 18 to 20 days This is roughly how long a container ship traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon, for example, will take to make the crossing.

“The unique selling point of Grain de Sail is its commitment to reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable transportation,” says Stefan Gallard, marketing director for the company. “Our objective is to avoid using the engine completely, but for safety reasons and port maneuvering we do have an engine.” By leveraging the power of wind, the vessels reduce CO₂ emissions by 90 percent compared to conventional maritime freight. 

In 2027, the Grain de Sail III will join the fleet. The new ship will be able to carry 200 containers, each 20 feet long, and cross the Atlantic in 13 days. It will rival the Neoliner Origin, expected to make its inaugural voyage across the Atlantic this summer. The Neoliner Origin is the largest primarily wind-powered ship in the world at 446 feet, and is able to carry 265 shipping containers for a maximum weight in goods of 5,300 tons. Her two masts, at over 249 feet each, have a total sail surface of over 32,000 square feet. The goal is to reduce the ship’s reliance on fuel by between 80 and 90 percent. 

But as impressive as the capacity of the ship may sound, when compared to the 15,000 or more containers a conventional cargo ship can carry, it’s a drop in the bucket. According to Gallard, skeptics of sail cargo often question if sailing ships are too small to truly make a dent in the world’s supply chains. This is where the International Windship Association (IWSA) comes in. Founded in 2014, the IWSA is a not-for-profit membership association that facilitates, advocates and promotes wind propulsion for all commercial shipping by bringing together required parties to shape industry and policies in the development of a lucrative wind-ship industry. 

The idea is to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by retrofitting conventional cargo ships with devices that use wind power. For example, rotor sails use spinning cylinders to generate lift and propel vessels forward. High-altitude large kites can be attached to the bow of a ship to harness winds, much like a traditional sails do.  

An optimized wind-assisted ship, according to Gavin Allwright, secretary-general of the IWSA, is generally a new container or cargo ship built with wind in mind. “These ships can offset fuel consumption by generally 20 to 30 percent using wind,” he says.

For Allwright, both retrofitting and building new wind-assisted ships are well worth the expense. “You’re looking at a return of investment on installing wind technology anywhere between three-and-a-half to five years,” he says. “If you were to put a new fuel system in, you would be looking at a very much longer period and possibly never getting your money back.” According to the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for global shipping, the capital cost of installing wind masts on board a ship, depending on the size of the vessel and number of masts, ranges from $170,000 to $300,000 per mast. 

But as Gallard found, some people remain skeptical, and it hasn’t always been easy for Allwright to change hearts and minds about the infinite possibilities of wind power. He recalls walking into industry meetings in 2014 where people would avoid talking to him about the crazy idea of using wind in commercial shipping. They’d ask him what’s in it for them and question why they should even bother. But those attitudes began to shift in 2018, when the IMO pledged to decarbonize shipping by 2050.

“Now, I’m able to walk into the room and the question is: ‘When are you going to do it? Your competitors are now moving,’” Allwright says.

Currently, according to Allwright, there are approximately 60 traditional cargo ships using wind-assisted technology. The largest cargo ship retrofitted with rotor sails to date, the Sohar Max, has a capacity of 400,000 deadweight tons (a measurement used to determine the maximum weight a ship can safely carry, including cargo, fuel, fresh and ballast water, provisions, crew and passengers). The sails of the Sohar Max are capable of reducing the ship’s fossil-fuel consumption by up to six percent and cutting carbon emissions by up to 3,000 tons annually. Requiring some electrical power to spin offsets the fuel the sails are able to save, but this doesn’t dissuade Allwright. Since shipping accounts for around three percent of global emissions, “We estimate if it’s rolled out fully we could generate about one-third of that power from wind,” he says. “So that’s one percent of the total human contribution to climate change from one solution in one sector.” 

And what do the mariners who crew these vessels think? Gallard says the crews of Grain de Sail’s ships often receive messages of encouragement from the captains of conventional cargo vessels. “It’s great to encounter that type of support and showcase that there is hope and a real desire from within the industry to find better alternatives,” he says.