The sail cargo movement advocates redirecting ocean movement of goods away from fossil-fuel use and toward wind propulsion. It proposes refurbishing existing ships or constructing new ones to make them wind-reliant or wind-assisted, thus expanding the sustainable use of a renewable resource. Professor Desrocher asks if these efforts, from perspectives of both the historical transition from wind to steam power and the recent economic and technological challenges facing the sail cargo movement: is the movement a well-meaning dead end?
Pierre Desrochers, associate professor in the Department of Geography, Geomatics, and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga, gave the 2026 Gould lecture: “Rough Seas on the route to Net-Zero: A critique of the sail cargo movement.” The lecture started with a history of sail, describing the positive (cheap way to move goods) and the negative (wind is an irregular means of propulsion, cost of human labor). This negative led to the adoption of artificial means of power (e.g. steam, coal, diesel). While these forms of power were hugely beneficial to the movement of goods and people, there were also definite environmental costs.
As to the value of the economic viability of sail cargo, the answer seems to be that these sail cargo companies have at best been able to deliver small volumes of high-end nonperishable products (e.g., rum, green coffee, cacao, spirits, and olive oil) with crews who volunteer for the unpaid privilege of working aboard in limited markets. While this might seem disappointing for practical applications in global transport, Desrochers concludes that modern sail cargo efforts are a niche idea that may expand with greater technological advances and are an interesting experiment in geographic economics.
Desrochers’ main research interests are economic development, technical innovation, business-environment interface, and energy policy and food policy. He has published on these and other subjects in a wide range of academic outlets.