ESG frameworks in place but industry faces execution gap, finds shipping’s first ESG benchmarking report in International Shipping News 05/06/2026 Lloyd’s Register’s Maritime ESG Benchmarking Report reveals uneven progress and highlights the need to turn ESG ambition into operational performance. A new report has found that while Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) frameworks are now widely established across shipping, they are not consistently translating into operational performance. The ‘Measuring ESG maturity in maritime’ report, published by Lloyd’s Register’s (LR) ESG Advisory service, provides a first-of-its-kind benchmark to help shipping companies translate ESG ambition into tangible operational improvements. It presents findings from LR Advisory’s Maritime ESG Maturity Index (MEMI), the first transparent, comparable framework for measuring ESG maturity in the industry. Drawing on a statistically validated assessment of 48 global shipping companies across multiple sub-sectors, MEMI evaluates performance across governance, environmental management, social responsibility, disclosure and supply chain practices, highlighting where companies are delivering value and where gaps remain. The report’s findings show that while ESG frameworks are now widely in place, the industry is yet to translate ambition into consistent operational outcomes. Shipping currently scores an average of 56 out of 100, placing it in the lower ‘Advanced’ category, with most companies having established governance structures but falling short in areas such as environmental execution, supply chain transparency and assured performance data. The analysis identifies a structural imbalance across the industry, with 27 of 48 companies scoring significantly higher on governance than on environmental performance, highlighting a gap between ESG strategy and operational delivery. A widening performance gap across the sector was also revealed with only a quarter of companies assessed reaching