More Merchant Shipping Stakeholders Sign Up to Green Award Scheme

UK – MARSHALL ISLANDS – WORLDWIDE – The Green Award Scheme, the voluntary international certification scheme for ships that go beyond the industry's regulations in terms of safety, quality, and environmental performance, seems to be gaining popularity. This week two announcements from the merchant shipping community demonstrate that the desire to show Corporate Social Responsibility, and indeed benefit from extra efforts invested in the improvement beyond legally required standards, is high on the agenda of a variety of industry stakeholders.

In a ceremony held this week Green Award Chairman, Captain Dimitrios Mattheou, and Executive Director, Jan Fransen, presented a Green Award plaque to Theo Xenakoudis, Director, Worldwide Business Operations of International Registries, Inc. (IRI), which provides administrative and technical support to the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Registry which has agreed to recognise Green Award certified ships with an incentive to motivate further efforts for excellence.

Henceforth ships registered in the RMI and certified by Green Award will be granted a 30% discount on the annual marine services fee and the Award chairman called this latest cooperation a huge step in the direction of an environmentally conscious and safe maritime industry of the future. He continued:

"Striking a balance between economically sound and environmentally and socially responsible shipping is of paramount importance. That's a task for the entire maritime community. By supporting Green Award, the RMI Registry joins the frontrunners of the industry actively taking measures to reduce their ecological footprint and encourage improvement of safety.”

For his part Mr Xenakoudis said it was noteworthy to see that so many RMI owners and operators are going beyond the industry's standard for environmental performance measures, commenting:

"Age is often an indicator of a greener fleet, and the RMI fleet is the youngest of any of the top 10 registries. We have always aimed to make our fleet environmentally friendly and so we are pleased to see that more than 16% of Green Award vessels are RMI flagged. The RMI has also maintained its Qualship 21 status for 14 consecutive years and, in addition, more than 28% of the United States Coast Guard's E-Zero designation vessels are RMI flagged.”

Meanwhile, at the same ceremony, GAC became the first ship agency in the UK to evidence its commitment to the environment by also signing up to the Green Award (GA) Foundation. Herman Jorgensen, Managing Director at GAC UK, said:

"GAC UK has taken numerous measures to promote sustainability in its business and beyond. We welcome initiatives like Green Award which are good for the environment and great for business, too. Signing up to Green Award underlines our commitment to improving the environment by supporting ship owners and operators who share the same ethos, recognising and rewarding companies with a 10% reduction on GAC UK ship agency fees."