Be seen to be green

Fitting environmentally friendly systems onboard ship comes at a cost and owners want to see some return for their investment, which is why class societies now offer environmental class notation.

A number of class societies are offering different options, with all focusing on the cruise ship sector where image is extremely important. However, a number of other ship types are now also fitting the equipment and getting notations in an effort to be seen to be green. These include tankers and chemical carriers.

Dr Gillian Reynolds, principal surveyor in the environmental engineering department at Lloyd?s Register, says the society launched its Environmental Protection (EP) notation because owners were not familiar with all the legislation governing ballast water management and exhaust emissions in the 1990s. She explains that some owners just wanted help and others wanted “hard and fast rules” as they did not have the experiences to set up systems themselves.

Reynolds says that Lloyd?s Register had discussed setting up an environmental notation system in 1990 but believed that the system would have needed to include procedures to have been effective, which would have been alien at that time. It was not until ISM came in that it became acceptable and it was then that class society went about developing the requirements and looking at operation needs for TBT, exhaust emissions and ballast water.

Reynolds explains that these requirements were not the best performance criteria but what could be achieved in the key areas of concern and all the requirements were above the international law. The class society initially produced provisional rules in 1998 and, says Reynolds, “in the light of experience amended rapidly”. Feedback and developments saw the rules amended to what they are today with a couple of items added, such as grey water and protected oil tanks, which the cruise industry consider important.

“What we have is a core requirement that everybody must comply with,” explains Reynolds. This can be added to with supplementary modules, which are far more stringent. Reynolds says: “Some owners invested in grey water treatment and want that extra financial investment recognised ? people can pick and mix to be advantageous to them.”

The ships investing in environmental notation are those that have contact with the public, such as cruise ships and ferries and those of a sensitive nature explains Reynolds, such as tankers and LNG carriers. The class society has recently granted four LNG carriers building in Japan EP notation. Ships that operate in sensitive areas such as the Baltic and Alaska have also gone for the notation as has nearly every new ship built for the UK?s Royal Navy.

Reynolds says that this is not as a result of pressure from the class society but as a policy from on high of a least equivalence. She explains that this is part of the UK?s Ministry of Defence strategy to refer to commercial standards rather than its own, except when military efficiency is compromised.

Reynolds says that Lloyd?s Register has no immediate plans to modify the rules issued last year but has a participant at IMO to keep track of what is going on and believes that the rules will have to be amended in a few years.

“We have talked about internal air quality and health water quality onboard ship, which we have done in the past,” says Reynolds. “However, we haven?t progressed other issues such as ship scrapping and hazardous materials ? to my mind it is a completely separate service ? I don?t want to bulk too much onto the environmental notation.”

Many of the class societies have similar products to Lloyd?s Register?s ? DNV has developed what it calls clean sailing, which has Clean class and Seas, Ship Environmental Accounting System. The class society also has services in connection to ballast water management that it calls Benefits.

Clean and Clean Design are new voluntary class notations with Clean being for existing ships and deep sea transport and Clean Design being for new designs and newbuildings, in particular near coastal and passenger transport, where environmental issues are included in the design.

Seas is used to calculate a vessel?s emissions to the atmosphere, discharges to the sea and deliveries to shore during normal operations allowing a ship owner to focus management attention on key areas, so he can continuously follow up environmental performance and improvement, which is required in ISO 14000.

ABS calls its system ABS Safety, Quality and Environment Guide, which it claims combines the common elements of the ISM Code, ISO 9000 Quality Management and ISO 14000 Environmental Management standards to marine operations. ABS president Robert Somerville says that implementation of an SQE program: “Can only enhance the public perception of a shipping company.”

Owners can select conformance from a matrix of standards and with the ability to concentrate on SE certification given the growing importance of publicly demonstrating a commitment to environmental standards, particularly in the tanker and cruise sectors.

Germanischer Lloyd calls its system Environmental Passport, which it claims is a green card for ships. It has six parts including; pending SOLAS and MARPOL regulations, voluntary classification notations, regional environmental standards, industry standards, voluntary pollution measures and unusually, a scrapping passport.

RINA calls its package of environmental notation Green Star, for which it offers two notations – Clean Sea and Clean Air. The class society says that although the notations have been particularly aimed at the passenger ship market they are applicable to any ship type. It explains that the RINA Green Star logo identifies ships that are designed, constructed and operated in such a way as to ensure maximum respect for the environment. The class society says that the Green Star is awarded to ships that meet the requirements of both the additional notations Clean Seas and Clean Air.