Sharpening focus on a variety of environmental challenges facing the shipping industry has led to a growing demand for environmental services. DNV has established a separate unit to help customers meet these demands.
To improve the environmental performance of seaborne transportation, DNV offers its expertise through a wide range of services. We will support and further develop DNVs environmental services in order to provide solutions for the industry in its drive to improve environmental standards, says Aage Bjørn Andersen, responsible for the development of environmental products and services in DNVs Environmental and Specification Services.
By 2005 the target is to develop an Environmental Service Area with more than 20 professionals serving the industry through highly qualified personnel. In our daily work we will cooperate closely with the industry and its stakeholders through DNVs global network of Maritime Service Centres, says Andersen.
DNV already offers a number of such services, including:
Clean passport
The Clean Passport is a document offered to the yard building a ship, or to the shipowner, containing a complete inventory regarding the vessels material composition, highlighting and rating contents that may cause occupational as well as environmental harm. This type of documentation is in increasing demand in conjunction with scrapping or decommissioning for disposal of ships at the end of their life.
Air and water quality
Public awareness regarding health and safety has grown as the number of contagious disease outbreaks on board cruise ships has increased over the past few years. Through the new DNV service Air Quality and Water Systems Assessment (AQWA), cruise ships may have their hygiene standard of air and water systems assessed and rated. Through visual inspection with photographic documentation and laboratory examination of air and water samples, occurrence of foreign substances and micro-organisms is detected. The DNV findings lead to suggested recommendations to improve air and water quality.
Clean Performance
Quantifying and documenting environmental impacts is a necessity in environmental management. An increasing number of parameters are to be reported upon. The registration and handling of this type of information is complex and time-consuming. Clean Performance is a cost-effective tool for handling operational data and generating environmental performance documentation.
At present, this tool is used in the MAREN programme, an environmental research and development initiative brought to life by the Norwegian Shipowners Association, to generate environmental performance characteristics of different segments of Norwegian shipping. DNV manages the programme. The objective is to develop an environmental performance generator that documents performance changes over time, and measures the results achieved.
Environmental certification
Environmental concern for seaborne transportation is on the international agenda, and a number of stakeholders are involved such as authorities, cargo owners, terminals and ports. The Port of Houston Authority is the first port in the United States certified according to the environmental standard ISO 14001. As the sixth largest in the world, more than 6,600 vessels call at the port every year. DNV certified the port authoritys Barbours Cut Container Terminal and Central Maintenance Facility this summer.
Shipping companies are increasingly interested in environmental management certification, and DNV is experiencing a demand for both implementation and training.