Green Award 10 Year Anniversary

In February 2004, the Green Award Foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary.

We planned to celebrate this successful initiative of the Port of Rotterdam and the Dutch Ministry of Transport Public Works and Water Management during two major shipping and shipping-related environmental meetings.

In March 2004, during the INTERTANKO event in Dubai, we sponsored the welcome reception. In October 2004 we will organize a reception during the IMO / MEPC Committee meeting in London with the support of Dutch Governmental Delegation and other stakeholders.

On behalf of the Foundation's Committee, the Board of Experts, the Board of Appeal and the Bureau, I would like to thank all parties and persons involved that have supported us from the start of Green Award. Those that joined us and have left and those who are still with us and will be in the (near) future.

We will continue to put even more effort into this good cause as we have done over the past 10 years.

Hans de Goeij
Managing Director

Green Award "Board of Experts" meeting

On 28 May 2004, the Green Award Board of Experts will meet at the offices of the Green Award Foundation. Amongst many others, one of the main topics will be the final adoption of the Green Award Requirements and Regulations 2004.

Concerning the Regulations, an important item will be the simplification of the application procedure. That is to say, the certification agreement, familiar to those already participating in the scheme, will most likely disappear and be replaced by a renewed application form and revised Regulations.

One of the most significant new Requirements will be the so-called Green Passport for new-build vessels and vessel demolition guidelines (ref. ICS Guidelines). Furthermore, we will try to change our Reporting and Assessment Criteria for the Ranking Requirements (whereby points are allocated for certification) in order to align these to our positive-awarding philosophy.

In June, the Green Award Committee will be requested to adopt the Board of Experts' proposals, which will result in a new issue of the Seacure for Operations and Appendices in July. Stakeholders and participants will receive these on CD-Rom and/or on hard copy. In addition to the welcome we will extend to several new Board of Experts' members, an active senior officer from a ship owner / manager participating in the Green Award scheme will be invited to the Board of Experts' meetings.

New certificate holder: Interorient Navigation Co. Ltd. (INC)

Green Award welcomes Interorient Navigation Co. Ltd. (INC) as a new certficate holder. The Cyprus-based shipmanagement company was audited by two Green Award auditors over two days and fulfilled of the Green Award requirements. INC has now applied for the certification of 4 tankers.

Since 1979, INC has been developing into one of the leading shipmanagement companies in Cyprus with currently about 250 shore-based employees and over 3,000 well-trained and experienced seamen on board the vessels under management. Full management includes technical and crew management, chartering, operations, sale and purchase, arranging H&M insurance as well as P&I Club covers and it furthermore provides accounting services including monitoring of agreed operating budgets and cash flow control.

Crewing services are provided to nearly all different types of vessels. In order to ensure the supply of highly qualified seamen and in accordance with the company's human resources policy, INC has established its own crewing agencies in Manila, St. Petersburg and Riga.

The fully-managed fleet consists of modern double hull product tankers, container ships ranging from 300 TEU up to 3.000 TEU capacity, multi-purpose/Lo-Ro and Ro-Ro vessels, timber carriers and bulk carriers.

Today INC is managing and operating a sizeable fleet of modern double hull product tankers. INC has now applied for the certification of the Baltic Challenger, Baltic Crusader, Baltic Commodore and Baltic Champion.

INC has been successfully audited in accordance with ISO 9001/2000 standards, the ISM Code ànd recently: the Green Award requirements!

www.interorient.com

The Japan Maritime Daily interviewed
Mr. Jan Fransen.

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Progression made in Japan

Jan Fransen, Green Award’s Deputy Managing Director, revisited Japan in January 2004. The main purpose of this visit was to strenghten the contacts established during a previous visit in 2003 and to visit some new contacts. The first result is that we have a strong indication that the first port in Japan will join the Green Award scheme within a year. At this stage we are not in the position to disclose the category of vessels for which an incentive might be made available, but we will inform our stakeholders as soon as possible.

Mount Fuji

During the visit in Japan, an update on the Green Award developments was discussed with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, both with the officials from Maritime Safety and the Ports and Harbours departments. Constructive dialogue took place with both departments and we can report that the Green Award is recognised as a good tool to enhance quality in shipping. However, it will take time to gain momentum in Japan.

Existing port contacts have been indeed strengthened and new ports were visited. Some of the meetings continued for a long period of time and we discussed the Green Award philosophy in depth. Indications show that some ports are considering participation. As mentioned above, we have strong indications that the first Japanese port will join within a year, although at this stage we are not in the position to disclose the category of vessels for which an incentive might be made available.

The Green Award scheme was presented in detail to several Japanese Shipping Companiesl. The number of participants and good discussions struck us. Besides explaining the scheme, we also learnt from the discussions and were able to incorporate useful comments. A common thread throughout the discussions was attention for the human element in the scheme (during the execution of audits) is welcomed. Many of the Japanese managers recognise this element as crucial for good performance. However, we still we experienced the so-called “Chicken and Egg story”, whereby some owners/managers are close to participation but at the same time, are waiting for a Japanese port to join.

Furthermore, meetings took place with the Japanese Shipping Exchange and the Ship and Ocean Foundation - both were supportive of the concept. Informal and very friendly meetings took also place with Japanese academic supporters.

We realise to a growing extent the importance of Japanese participation in the Green Award Scheme. Japan, as a front-runner, will create a spin off in the Asia-Pacific region and will create the momentum to motivate charterers to choose quality tonnage. This will result in motivating shipowners to improve their Quality, Safety and Environmental performance on a continual basis. We are convinced that Japanese participation will create global acceptance of the independent and non-profit Green Award scheme and will accelerate the enhancement of environmental standards in shipping. We would like to thank Prof. Masato Shinohara for his much appreciated help.

Please find the article and translation on our website www.greenaward.org, item "News".

Ship of the desert

New ship types for Green Award?

Green Award has a certification scheme for crude oil and product tankers and bulk carriers, and is exploring the possibilities to extend the Green Award program to other ship types:

• A pilot study concerning Incentive Schemes for Short Sea Shipping is currently in progress.
• We are trying to bring parties together in order to evaluate the possibilities for a certification program for Chemical Tankers.
• We have received serious requests for a system for Container Ships.
• We are invited to give advise on a project for Inland Shipping.

Unfortunately, the ships of the desert will not be eligble for Green Award certification...

Green Award and the ProSea Foundation

The Bureau Green Award has been executing audits on board ships and at the offices of ship managers at different locations in the world for over 10 years. Both Green Award and the participating managers and their certified vessels have improved their Quality, Safety and Environmental standards significantly over the years.

From this 10 year experience, we have observed one particular issue which needs to be improved in order to enhance the environmental performance and image of vessels sailing the seven seas. We think it is of importance to create a better environmental awareness among the professionals navigating the vessels of an owner. Quite often, despite the good efforts made during the training of officers, we have observed a lack of or limited environmental awareness. After some research we learned that Nautical Academies are not providing sufficient training on this subject.

Over the last few years in The Netherlands, the ProSea Foundation has provided courses on this subject. It is the intention that this initiative will be internationalised. Green Award offers expertise in providing lectures and strives for international acceptance of the course. Ultimately, we would like to see it developed as an IMO model course.

The activity of the ProSea Foundation is the initiation and organisation of Marine Environment Awareness and Sustainable Development courses and training for marine professionals (to be). In practice this consists of the following:

Marine Environment Awareness Course, The island of Texel, The Netherlands

An International Marine Environment Awareness Course for seafarers/students in English
This course has been developed as part of the EU-Interreg III sponsored by Save the North Sea project (SNS) in co-operation with KIMO.

http://www.prosea.info/

Marine environment..

(Photos: Peter van Hattum)

Marine Environmental Awareness Course

The latest Marine Environment Awareness Course, held on the island of Texel in The Netherlands was followed by Ms. Jacqueline Oud, our graduate student currently working on the development of a green certificate for shortsea shipping.Together with over 45 future maritime officers and 2 professionals she participated in the 4 day course.

During these four days, lectures were given covering different sources of marine pollution and their impact on the marine environment. This, together with field trips, provided the students with a good understanding of the marine environment and their impact on it. The interaction between the professionals and the future marine officers resulted in numerous discussions and contributed to a better understanding from both sides.

Overall the course was considered very worthwhile and will hopefully result in more environmentally aware maritime officers in the future.

Familiarization Green Award Employee

Green Award's philosophy is, that it is beneficial if our people become familiar with the work of their colleagues and clients on board the vessels.

This in addition to professional curiosity was the reason why Green Award accountant Mrs. A.M. (Mieke) Weteling-Wally attended a Green Award survey. Recently, she accompanied Green Award surveyor Capt. A.R. (Rob) den Heijer during an annual survey on board M/T PALVA (Fortum) in Rotterdam.

Green Award would like to thank the Master and crew from the Palva for their hospitality and explanations.

Palva (Fortum)

Astro Centaurus

Chios

Vigdis Knutsen

Torm Alice

Recently certified vessels

New certificates

• Astro Centaurus / Kristen Navigation Inc.
• British Willow / Executive Ship Management Pte Ltd
• Iran Damavand / National Iranian Tanker Company
• Iran Daylam / National Iranian Tanker Company
• Iran Harsin / National Iranian Tanker Company
• Iran Semnan / National Iranian Tanker Company
• Maritime Jewel / Tanker Pacific Management
• Stena Contender / Unicom Management Services (Cyprus) Ltd
• Tantramar / Tanker Pacific Management

Renewed certificates

• Al Awdah / Kuwait Oil Tanker Compay S.A.K.
• Chios / Sun Enterprises Ltd
• Elisabeth Knutsen / Knutsen OAS Shipping AS
• Nordic Sarita / IUM Shipmanagement AS
• Oscilla / Shell Int. Trading & Shipping Co.
• Seavoyager / Thenamaris Ships Management Inc.
• Torm Alice / A/S Dampskibsselskabet Torm
• Vigdis Knutsen / Knutsen OAS Shipping AS