How Grain de Sail’s Cargo Sailboats Are Making Luxury Trade Eco-Friendly

In an age where speed and quantity often dominate global trade discussions, one French company is proving that returning to wind power might be the way forward for sustainable shipping.

Rediscovering Wind Power in Global Shipping

When most of us buy products, we rarely think about how they reached us. The massive container ships that cross our oceans run on heavy fuel oil, contributing approximately 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions – roughly equivalent to the aviation industry. While various industries are finding pathways to reduce their carbon footprint, maritime shipping has remained a challenging sector to decarbonize.

Enter Grain de Sail, a French company co-founded by twin brothers Jacques and Olivier Barreau, who asked a simple question: what if we returned to wind power, using modern technology to make it commercially viable?

In a recent episode of GreenTech Pulse, Jacques Barreau shared how their company is combining old-world sailing techniques with modern innovation to create a sustainable shipping model for premium goods.

From Coffee Roasters to Maritime Pioneers

Grain de Sail didn’t start with ships. Their journey began in 2013 with coffee, followed by chocolate production in 2016. The shipping venture came later as they searched for a way to transport their products sustainably.

“The idea of Grain de Sail came up in 2010,” explains Jacques. “We worked together in the offshore wind market, developing several offshore wind farms on the coast of France. Olivier was looking for a solution to reduce the carbon footprint of maritime shipping.”

Their conclusion was surprisingly simple: “Even today, we actually don’t have any better solution than a mast and a sail to push a boat without any fuel.”

By 2020, they launched their first cargo sailboat, a 24-meter vessel with a 50-ton capacity. This was followed in 2024 by their second vessel – 52 meters long with a 350-ton capacity. Their ambitious plans include a third vessel that will be 110 meters long with a capacity of 2,800 tons, capable of carrying standard shipping containers.

Efficiency That Rivals Conventional Shipping

One of the most surprising revelations from Jacques was that their sailboats aren’t slower than conventional shipping. Their last transatlantic crossing from New York to Saint-Malo, France took just 14 days – comparable to standard shipping times.

“We are sometimes faster than conventional shipping,” Jacques notes, “just because we are not using containers, which means the time to load and unload is saved.”

This efficiency stems from two key factors: modern vessel design and advanced routing technology. Unlike the sailing vessels of centuries past, Grain de Sail’s boats benefit from materials and design principles developed in offshore racing – “almost like Formula One for cars,” as Jacques puts it.

Equally important is their use of satellite weather forecasting and digital simulations to guide vessels along optimal routes across the Atlantic. This combination of traditional propulsion with cutting-edge navigation makes their business model viable in today’s competitive shipping industry.

Powering Modern Needs with Wind

A common question about sail-powered vessels concerns onboard power needs. How do they run navigation equipment, lighting, and crew amenities without engines?

The answer showcases clever engineering: as the boat moves through water, hydrogeneration systems – essentially underwater turbines – convert that motion into electricity, which is stored in battery packs.

“The boat is mainly powered by the sails of course,” Jacques explains, “but we also need to get energy to feed all the electronic equipment, the lights, even the air conditioning. We use hydrogeneration – it’s a kind of propeller that is not pushing the boat but generating electricity.”

For heating, they’ve installed wood pellet stoves rather than fuel-based heating systems. “We didn’t invent anything,” Jacques adds, “we just took this kind of system from industry and adapted it for sailing capacity.”

Rethinking What We Ship

Perhaps the most thought-provoking aspect of Grain de Sail’s philosophy goes beyond how goods are shipped to questioning what should be shipped in the first place.

“One of the issues today after carbon footprint saving is: what kind of goods do we really need to transport across oceans?” Jacques asks. “Is it absolutely necessary to build plastic objects coming from across the world? Is it absolutely necessary to bring poor quality T-shirts sold at very low prices, coming from countries with bad social conditions?”

His perspective challenges our consumption-driven economy: “We have to shift from an economy based on quantity to an economy based on quality, because a high-quality object that can last much longer, that could even be repaired or recycled at the end, will generate much less pressure on the environment.”

This philosophy guides what Grain de Sail chooses to transport: “We should transport goods that deserve to be transported and not all goods. We have to relocalize in all countries just to be sure that products transported across the ocean deserve to be transported.”

Examples include fine wines from regions like Burgundy, where unique terroir makes it impossible to replicate that quality elsewhere, or specialty chocolate and coffee with exceptional quality.

The Triple Impact Business Model

Grain de Sail represents a new kind of business model that balances three essential pillars:

1. Financial sustainability – The business must be economically viable
2. Environmental compatibility – Operations must minimize negative ecological impacts
3. Social responsibility – Business practices must support positive social outcomes

“The company of the 21st century needs to be in good equilibrium in these three pillars,” Jacques emphasizes. “All this financial capacity we have to have has to be compatible with the environment and social aspects. If the company is not in good equilibrium in these three pillars, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Looking Ahead: Scaling Sustainable Shipping

With plans for larger vessels, Grain de Sail aims to make sustainable shipping increasingly cost-competitive. Their third vessel will cut transportation costs roughly in half compared to their current ship while offering faster cruising speeds.

“When the hull is longer, the cruising speed is better,” Jacques explains. “That’s for us a way to be a little bit closer to the usual cost of transportation from maritime shipping and to be as efficient in the logistic aspect.”

However, Jacques emphasizes that technological improvements alone won’t solve our climate crisis: “If we are not focused on the reduction of the amount of goods that are transported across the oceans, if we only focus on the carbon footprint optimization of the vessels, it’s not going to be enough.”

The International Maritime Organization has set a target of zero net emissions by 2050 – not a 50% reduction, but zero. Meeting this ambitious goal requires both better vessels and reduced shipping volume.

Adding Value Through Sustainable Transport

For consumers, knowing how a product was transported adds value beyond the product itself. When a bottle of fine Burgundy wine arrives in New York via sailboat rather than container ship, it comes with a story and environmental credentials that enhance its appeal.

“When the final customer in New York or the US tastes this bottle, they will of course taste the product, but they will also be informed on how the bottle has been transported,” Jacques notes. “We add value – after the quality of the product itself, it’s also the quality of the transportation.”

Grain de Sail places stickers on all transported products showing they were carried by sailboat. “You add environmental value, you even add adventure – the maritime adventure – on your product, and it makes a big difference in the end.”

Conclusion: Back to Nature, Forward to Sustainability

Grain de Sail’s approach reminds us that sometimes the most sustainable solutions involve returning to natural principles – in this case, harnessing wind power – while enhancing them with modern technology.

As consumers become increasingly conscious of their purchases’ environmental impact, companies like Grain de Sail offer a glimpse of how global trade might evolve: slower, more deliberate, focused on quality over quantity, and with full awareness of each product’s journey.

“We know what we have to do to be compatible with the environment,” Jacques concludes, “but the main issue is to convince all consumers to change the way they are buying goods.”

By demonstrating that sail-powered shipping is commercially viable for premium products, Grain de Sail is helping us reimagine what sustainable global trade could look like – not by abandoning international commerce, but by making it more thoughtful, selective, and aligned with environmental limits.

Visit Grain de Sail’s website to learn more about their sustainable shipping and premium products.