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Leading towage and emergency response company Svitzer - part of the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group - has announced that it has placed an order for two environmentally-friendly tugs.

The order forms part of the company's environmental plan, which focuses on three key elements:

- Fuel efficiency program
- New tug design
- Alternative fuels

As part of this plan, Svitzer has set a target for the CO2 emissions of the company to be reduced by 1 percent each year from 2008-2012.

"We are pleased to be amongst the pioneers of environmentally-friendly tug design. Svitzer has a long history of putting cutting-edge technologies to commercial use and our eco-tug design is yet another example of this," said CEO Jesper T. Lok.

"Whereas the eco-tug is a more expensive tug to build we believe that it will be a commercial success and "going green" makes good business sense," added Lok.

Head of Group Newbuilding Esben H Grundtvig explained that they were given a clear mandate to develop an eco-tug for the future which applied the latest technology to minimize emissions.

"It took us two years to optimize the design and I am happy to say that the eco-tug will make a real difference," said Grundtvig.

The new design differs in two significant ways:
- It is diesel-electric
- It incorporates SCR (selective catalyst reaction) and a particulate filter

With the incorporation of these design features, Svitzer says it expects to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 by some 10 percent and NOx by 70-80 percent.