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September
2002
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"It's green
for go but ports are slow to
back foundation's award scheme"
(Article, published in Lloyd's LIst, 16-08-2002)
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"Since being established eight years ago the Green Award Foundation has gone from strength to strength and, says managing director Hans de Goeij, "has always been seen in a positive way". It advises rather than polices and readily shares its experience with masters of ships whose owners have volunteered to take part
Ports are an important part of the scheme as they offer Green Award ships incentives. At the time of writing one port was on the verge of signing up, presenting "a small breakthrough". Mr. De Goeij is confident others will follow quickly. The Green Award Foundation is very selective about the ships and companies that it accepts through strict survey requirements. These are purposely set at levels considered to be higher than those laid out in IMO legislation. Consequently, Mr. De Goeij feels the Green Award will "help port state control to concentrate on lesser quality ships" and could play a greater role in tanker vetting decisions. "This is difficult, as there is a high level of mistrust [within the oil industry]. We must gain more authority first," he adds. Surprisingly, not just blue chip owners are joining. Other companies are taking part "which are turning into first class companies through their participation in the Green Award scheme", says Mr. De Goeij. These owners may scrape in with the minimum 60% pass rate, but progressively many have raised their standards - "a development we want to stimulate". Green Award audits examine office procedures every three years - although some owners have requested annual audits - in addition to annual ship inspections, with both designed to "recognise quality and organisation". Some 70% of ship inspectors look at the human side of the operation, while the remaining 30% focus on how the ship is maintained and organised. One of the areas worrying Mr. De Goeij is the proliferation of other environmental incentive schemes. "There are the Nox and Sox Award in Sweden, Qualship 21 in the United States, while Australia, Canada and Japan are also developing their own systems", he points out. Some base their acceptance criteria on ships maintaining a clean three-year detention record, not on surveys or inspections. Others bar ships flying certain flags automatically no matter how well they are maintained or how good their owners are. No one can stop governments introducing these schemes, but Mr De Goeij wants a "form of transparency and compatability". He adds: "We want to avoid people reinventing the wheel in developing different green ship programmes as this represents a scattering of collective energies." Instead, the foundation is pushing for the establishment of the MEGA (Maritime Environment Global Alliance) platform to bring all relative parties together and exchange ideas. Mr. De Goeij feels that such a forum will be able to co-ordinate and discuss issues and satisfy regional concerns." |
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Hans de Goeij |
Klaipeda Port We are proud of the Green Award recognition at Klaipeda Port, Lituania. Our most recent entrant is the first Baltic Green Award Port. The new rules of application of port dues were approved by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, while the port authority and associations were closely involved in drafting the rules. Klaipeda is an attractive transit port, connecting the main transportation corridors between the East and the West. It is the most northern ice-free Baltic seaport. Harbour waters do not freeze even at -25°C. The depth of the harbour waters at the northern part of the port quays is 14.5 meters and in perspective the depth is to reach 17 meters. Klaipeda Port is a State port. Its land and harbour waters belong to the State. The port of Klaipeda is managed by the Authorities of Klaipeda State Seaport, the founders of which are the Communications Ministry of the Republic of Lithuania. In 2001, the number of tankers calling Klaipeda Port exceeded 600. The average amount of port dues paid by tankers of 15,000 GT (20,000 dwt) is above 20,000 EURO 24,000 GT (30,000 dwt) - some 30,000 EURO. At Klaipeda Port, the Green Award vessels receive 5% premium incentive based on vessel dues. |
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New participants Two remarkable new participants have received their Green Award certification for their office organisation: Silver Fern Shipping Limited in Wellington, New Zealand and The National Iranian Tanker Company in Tehran, Iran. Meanwhile for both companies the first vessels have been surveyed with positive results. |
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Silver Fern Shipping Limited Silver Fern Shipping Limited (SFSL) specialises in petroleum product tanker operations and is New Zealand’s only tanker operating and management company. SFSL operates two modern tankships and directly employs 110 seagoing staff, plus 9 in the office. The company carries out all the traditional duties of a ship manager such as: operational, technical, manning and safety management, and administration. In addition SFSL provides value-added services, with specialist skills in ship-shore interface and project administration tailored to suit the clients’ needs. Silver Fern Shipping is a performance-based operation, using defined Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure its performance to stomer expectations. In addition to the in-house resources, Silver Fern Shipping has access, via its shareholders, to a wide range of specialist tanker knowledge and experience, which provides SFSL with flexibility and up to date technical knowledge in tanker operations. Ship management is about people. Silver Fern Shipping is proud of its staff, both at sea and ashore, and the service they provide in moving petroleum products around the New Zealand coastline safely and efficiently. During the office audit the Green Award audit team experienced a very enthusiastic and motivated team, that definetely wants SFSL to be a frontrunner. Apart from obtaining the Green Award certificate each individual team member showed his/her eagerness to improve the company standards. An open culture and a winning team!! |
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SFSL's Kakariki Built in Poland in 1998/9. Dead weight 38,700 tonnes, length 183 metres, beam 32.2 metres wide and draft (below waterline 11 metres).Speed is 14.4 knots, 8,840 kw power. Steering: schilling rudder, skewed propellor, bow thruster with 20 tonnes pull. Cargo: 24 tanks, double hull, segregated ballast, deepwell cargo pumps and computer control. |
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The National Iranian Tanker Company Another remarkable newcomer is The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) in Tehran, Iran. In May 2002 the Green Award audit team was invited at the headquarters of the NITC. NITC proved to be one of the progressive shipping company worldwide and passed the audit successfully, with high scores. The Green Award audit team experienced full cooperation and committment fom the NITC staff and has been very impressed by the importance of the human factor within the organisation. The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) as Iran's first organization of shipping, in its present form, was established on the early days of nationalization of oil industry, i.e., 1955. NITC is an affiliate of the National Iranian Oil Company with the registered capital of 457 million dollars. Its main offices are strategically situated in the capital city of Tehran with easy access to NIOC and other important government organizations. NITC branch offices are located at all major ports and oil terminals in Persian Gulf; with support centers at Sharjah/UAE and Rotterdam. NITC is proud of its contribution towards the shipment of the country's crude oil to world markets as well as other customers in the international markets; and its never ending endeavor for technical enhancement of its tanker fleet.With NITC's wide range of contacts both in Iran and abroad, this company has become very active as an intermediary between National Iranian Oil Company, ship owners and oil clients. NITC is a leading company in the middle east in certification and implementation safety and qualified Management systems. |
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New certificates:
Renewed certificates:
The complete list of certified vessels can be found here. |
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New Office Manager / Quality Manager On 2 July 2002 we welcomed Mrs Karin Struijk as our new Office Manager / Quality Manager. Karin is, apart from being office manager, Fred Westerdijk's successor. Fred is leaving the Green Award Organisation on 30 September 2002. Fred Westerdijk, in his seafarer's time Chief engineer with Nedlloyd, is the man behind our internal quality system, the upgrading of "Seacure for Operations 2000" and the training programme for Green Award accredited surveyors. A number of people met Fred during the various office audits. We are grateful to him because of the quality of his own work for Green Award. He will be greatly missed as a colleague. On 18 October 2002 a farewell party will be given in his honour. "Farewell" is a bit of an exaggeration because we might contract Fred in specific cases, for example for special projects like training of surveyors and other interested parties. Karin Struijk has acquired a vast knowledge about quality systems both in and outside the shipping world. This is very important to us, since our existence is based on the auditing of our participating ship operators. Since Karin joined our company we are very pleased to have a professional woman's perspective and experience in what is considered to be a male oriented business. We are especially encouraged by the fact that Karin is a member of the Green Award management team. |
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The purpose of Green Award is to promote clean and safe shipping through the certification of ships (oil, product tankers and dry bulk carriers of 20,000 DWT and above). At the moment, more than 150 tankers with a Green Award are sailing the world's seas. 22% of international oil transport by sea takes place in tankers certified by the Green Award Foundation. For more
information:
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