How we started, where we are, and headed
The Green Award Foundation started as an initiative of the Port of Rotterdam to promote safer and more environmentally friendly shipping for vessels calling at the port 30 years ago.
“Although IMO-compliant ships were calling at the port, we wanted to go beyond the status quo. With my background in seafaring and experience as an incident and traffic control manager at the port of Rotterdam in the ‘90s, we learned that substandard ships often cause problems that can have a negative effect on the communities living around the harbour and might hamper the logistics chain,” said Jan Fransen, Executive Director of the Green Award Foundation.
To solve this problem, some members of the board of Port of Rotterdam, led by the then-serving COO, Pieter Struijs, established the Green Award Foundation to help create an above-IMO-standard checklist and requirements to guide surveys and ship inspections. High performers are then rewarded with Green Award certification, which they can proudly display to earn incentives such as discounts on port dues when they call.
From the outset, the board decided it was going to be an independent foundation, detached from the port. “This is reflected in the composition of our board, as it is comprised of members from the industry itself,” Jan added.
“As time went on, the Rotterdam municipality and the government of the Netherlands welcomed the Green Award certification scheme as a much-needed initiative to drive highest standards in safety and environment performance of ships coming into the Netherlands,” said Jan.
30 years down the line, we have expanded our certification scheme beyond the port of Rotterdam. For our seagoing programme, 47 ports in Europe (18), Asia (13), Africa (9), North America (3), South America (2), and the Middle East (2) provide incentives to above and beyond performing ships.
Besides ports, we have 105+ incentive providers ranging from maritime products and service suppliers to cooperate organisations providing discount on the port dues, service, products, special extra service/product and promotions.
Seagoing ships managed by over 45 shipping companies representing 30 countries are green award certified – that excludes inland ship certifications.
The Green Award initiative is consistent to 13 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is a tool for shipping companies to address ESG principles.
“One ship at a time, we are seeing cleaner and safer vessels and if more ports and industry players adopt the initiative of incentivizing above-standard ships, those that cause harm to people, environment, and our economy will soon be a thing of the past,” Jan noted.