Signol: Driving Fuel Efficiency Through Human-Centric Behavioural Science

Across the maritime and aviation industries, companies face persistent challenges in reducing fuel consumption, lowering carbon emissions, and improving operational efficiency all while managing rising costs and regulatory pressure. Traditional approaches often rely heavily on expensive hardware upgrades, infrastructure overhauls, or complex retrofits that require significant capital investment and long implementation timelines. However, organizations often struggle to influence human behavior, such as discretionary fuel loading, inefficient routing, or idling that directly impact fuel usage. Despite having access to data, many operators lack effective, low-friction tools to turn insights in this domain into into sustainable action among frontline employees like pilots, engineers, or captains.

To address these challenges, Signol, a London-based sustainability technology startup, has introduced a novel, human-centric solution rooted in behavioral science. Rather than investing in physical infrastructure, Signol’s platform nudges individuals such as seafarers to make small, personalized behavioral changes that collectively result in significant reductions in fuel use, emissions, and operational costs. Born from academic research and validated through real-world pilots, Signol is transforming how organizations approach decarbonization by unlocking the power of daily human decisions.

The concept behind Signol originated from academic research into behavioural science. Initially targeting aviation, the solution evolved into maritime applications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a successful pilot on BSM Deutschland vessels, where only four months of behavioural interventions resulted in US $3.2 million in fuel cost savings, Signol expanded more broadly.

Their value proposition emphasizes human centric nudges deployed swiftly and with minimal infrastructure requirements. Below is a snapshot of Signol’s impact:

approximately $25 million saved in fuel costs
nearly 100,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ avoided
31,000 tonnes of fuel conserved.

Signol was founded by Dan (Daniel) White, rooted in academic behavioural science frameworks. Professor Robert Metcalfe played a pivotal role in early methodology development. Gavin Laidlaw joined as Chief Commercial Officer after being inspired by Signol’s research, and Michael Fanning became CEO, bringing extensive leadership experience from Shell Mobility Solutions. Company records list Daniel White, Robert Metcalfe, and Robert Hahn as founders.

Signol’s platform leverages behavioural science to motivate individuals toward sustainable operational choices without needing hardware upgrades. The platform:

Identifies high impact behaviours from existing data.
Deploys personalised SMART goals, rewards, and feedback through web and email.
Visualises gains via a dashboard that shows fuel, carbon, and cost savings.

In aviation, examples include optimizing discretionary fuel load, taxi in/taxi out procedures, and flight efficiency yielding measurable per-flight savings.

In shipping, capabilities include integrating with noon reports, setting daily goals like optimal trim, auxiliary engine usage, or main engine optimization delivering per-day savings of several tonnes of fuel and CO₂.

Behavioural techniques incorporated include personalised feedback, rewards (like charitable donations), environmental framing, and tailored incentives.

Case Study

TUI Cruises Pilot Behaviour Change Project – May 2025

In a six-month collaboration commencing May 12, 2025, Signol deployed its behavioural change platform on TUI Cruises’ Mein Schiff vessels. The initiative identified four operational areas (e.g., on-time departure to reduce idle engine time) where captains and engineers could directly influence fuel consumption. Crew members received nudges via the web app and email personalised goals backed by charitable donations (to Enaleia, a Greek plastic-recycling social enterprise). This innovation deepens TUI’s sustainability strategy by coupling cutting edge tech with human engagement.

The company closed a £3 million seed round in April 2023, co-led by East Innovate (the venture arm of East Alpha) and Innoport (Schulte Group’s VC arm), with participation from Forge Ventures, Stolt Ventures, Riverstone, and Motion Ventures. This initial investment aimed to deepen Signol’s behavioural science, data science, and AI capabilities while accelerating its commercial growth. In September 2024, Signol secured an additional £2.5 million (also reported as €2.96 million) in a seed extension round led by New York-based VC TMV, with continued participation from East Innovate and new investors including Ultranav, MOL PLUS (the venture arm of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines), and other strategic partners. Together, these funding rounds have enabled Signol to enhance its behavioural platform, expand into new industries such as corporate travel, and position itself as a global leader in human-centric sustainability solutions.

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