Fortis: new Green Award Incentive Provider

Green Award is pleased to announce that the Fortis Transportation Group decided to become a Green Award Incentive Provider.

During an official ceremony on 6 December 2007, Green Award chairman Aart Korteland handed over a Green Award plaque to Gust Biesbroeck and Harris Antoniou, Head of Fortis' Global Shipping Group.

In his speech, Aart Korteland mentioned that ‘Green Award is delighted with Fortis Transportation Group as an incentive provider. In addition to ports and nautical service providers, Green Award is pleased to welcome the ‘banking business’ as a new group of incentive providers, with Fortis as a frontrunner’.

The step taken by Fortis is one of the effects of Fortis’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy. The Fortis Transportation Group offers Green Award certificate holders two advantages: a non-financial advantage and a financial advantage.

The non-financial advantage is that Green Award certification will have a positive effect on Fortis’ client acceptance policy since Green Award certification is included in the Fortis Shipping Sustainability Assessment Tool (SSAT).

Fortis will as of 1 January, 2008 contribute to the Green Award Incentive Program by effectively providing its shipping customers a discount to the cost of joining Green Award. Fortis will reimburse:

• 25% of the annual Green Award fees for the vessels that are financed by Fortis, and
• 25% of the Green Award office audit fees for the (shipping) companies that are a client of Fortis.

We welcome the Fortis Transportation Group on board!

Upgrade of Green Award Requirements: Seacure 2008

The Green Award Committee has adopted the Board of Experts' proposals, which have resulted in the official issue of the Green Award "Seacure for Operations 2008" and revised Appendices for Oil Tankers and Bulk Carriers.

Apart from "fine tuning" some elements, major changes have been made in the following areas:

• Mooring Equipment
• Training / Courses for Personnel
• Ballast Water Management
• Management of Ship Exhaust Emissions
• Marpol Bunkering requirements & Additional Green Award requirements

The following elements have been added to the Appendices:

• Monitoring of Ship Exhaust Emissions (& use of the data to set targets for improvement)
• ECDIS, electronic charts, training & onboard procedures
• Hot Work procedures
• Marpol NOx emission limits

The upgraded Green Award Requirements are valid from 1st April 2008. An explanatory letter and USB sticks for every ship involved will be sent to our certificate holders in the first half of March 2008.

Contingency planning according to Green Award

During our surveys and audits, we often are confronted with a mis-interpretation of the term 'CONTINGENCY' and find it confused with 'EMERGENCY'.

For those who like to refresh their know-how, please consult the separate pdf-file with the Green Award interpretation of contingencies.

Prof. Hengst resigned from Board of Experts

Prof. ir. S. Hengst resigned from the Board of Experts. He had been a member of this Board since the start of Green Award in 1994.

Mr. Fransen complimented Mr. Hengst for the way he contributed to the development of Green Award. Having a technical background (attached to Delft University) Prof. Hengst quite often had a different, refreshing way of thinking, which led to the best solutions.

By handing over a 'Certificate of Recognition', Green Award expresses its gratefulness to Prof. Hengst for his contribution to the success of Green Award.

New colleague for Green Award Team

Green Award has a new addition to her team. Yulia Diyakonova has been appointed Project and Management Assistant, providing administrative and secretarial back up support.

Originally from Moscow, Yulia has been living in the Netherlands for 1.5 year now and she has worked in administrative, secretarial and public relations positions for international companies. She speaks Russian, English and Dutch.

Please join us in welcoming her on board and wishing her all the best in her new position.  

Green Ship Technology

Environmental performance has also become an element of competitiveness. In today’s world, environmental and economic objectives go hand-in-hand. Operating environmentally friendly shipping has costs but also benefits: how can shipowners and operators balance the two effectively? The Green Ship Technology addresses this topic.

Taking place in Rotterdam, one of the world’s leading maritime centres, this 5th annual conference is a forum where participants can exchange ideas and experiences, and keep up-to-date on technical and legislative developments, in the plenary sessions, the break-out sessions and in the informal networking breaks.

The Green Award Foundation supports this conference, scheduled for Tuesday 11th - Wednesday 12th March 2008 in Hilton Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Website Green Ship Technology

Green Port / Eco Ports 2008 Amsterdam

Green Port and Eco Ports link up for 2008

The port industry’s two leading environmental conferences – GreenPort and EcoPorts – will be brought together into a single event. The joint conference will take place at the Mövenpick Hotel, Amsterdam, on 27-28 February 2008.

Green Award Foundation supports this conference.

www.green-port.net