Nowadays, it is a requirement for all companies to have environmental protection policies; the same applies to tanker oil companies.
Tanker companies have created and incorporated in their system appropriate environmental policies;
unfortunately, most small companies treat their policies as a paper exercise and do only what is necessary to comply with rules and regulations.
On the other hand, the majority of today's modern responsible shipping company works on consolidation and integration of their system,
mostly their IMS is integrated with standards like ISO 9001: 2015 and ISO 14001:2015, to enforce their policies and increase their competitiveness in the market.
Results of that kind of integration are shown in an increase in the quality of their services and reductions in fuel consumption.
ISO 14001:2015 Environmental management systems
“part of the management system used to manage environmental aspects, fulfil compliance obligations and address risks and opportunities.”
Aim of an environmental management system
The purpose of this International Standard is to provide organisations with a framework to protect the environment
and respond to changing environmental conditions in balance with socio-economic needs.
It specifies requirements that enable an organisation to achieve the intended outcomes it sets for its environmental management system.
A systematic approach to environmental management can provide top management with information to build success over
the long term and create an option for contributing to sustainable development by:
protecting the environment by preventing or mitigating adverse environmental impacts;
mitigating the potential adverse effect of environmental conditions on the organisation;
assisting the organisation in the fulfilment of compliance obligations;
enhancing environmental performance;
controlling or influencing the way an organisation’s products and services are designed,
manufactured, distributed, consumed and disposed of by using a life cycle the perspective
that can prevent environmental impacts from being unintentionally shifted elsewhere within the life cycle;
achieving financial and operational benefits that can result from implementing environmentally sound alternatives that strengthen the organisation’s market position;
communicating environmental information to relevant interested parties;
This International Standard, like other International Standards, is not intended to increase or change an organisation’s legal requirements.
ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management systems
ISO 9001:2015 is a company-level certification based on the standard published by the International Organization for Standardization titled
"Quality management systems-Requirements".
This standard revises ISO 9001:2008 to include requirements for a new, higher-level structure as a common framework to all ISO management systems,
risk-based thinking in quality system processes, fewer prescribed requirements with less emphasis on documentation,
clear definition of the quality management system boundaries and increased leadership requirements.
Any certifications issued to ISO 9001:2008 will no longer be valid after September 2018.
ISO 9001:2015 is a non-industry-specific certification and is intended for any organisation that wants to implement and maintain a quality management system.
Certifications Are issued by third-party certifying bodies. For an organisation to maintain ISO 9001:2015 certification,
they will be subjected to annual or regularly scheduled audits to evaluate the organisation's continued compliance with the standard.
ISM Code
The purpose of the International Safety Management (ISM) Code is to provide an the international standard for the safe management and operation of ships and pollution prevention.
The Code's origins go back to the late 1980s when there was mounting concern about poor Management standards in shipping.
Investigations into accidents revealed significant errors on the part of management, and in 1987 the IMO Assembly adopted resolution A.596(15),
which called upon the Maritime Safety Committee to develop guidelines concerning shore-based management to ensure the safe operation of ro-ro passenger ferries.
The Code establishes safety-management objectives and requires a safety management system (SMS) to be established by "the Company",
which is defined as the owner or any other organisation or person, such as the manager or bareboat charterer, who has assumed responsibility for operating the ship and who,
on assuming such responsibility has agreed to take over all duties and responsibilities imposed by the Code.
The Company is then required to establish and implement a policy for achieving these objectives. This includes providing the necessary resources and shore-based support.
Every company is expected "to designate a person or persons ashore having direct access to the highest level of management" to provide a link between the company and those on board.
The procedures required by the Code should be documented and compiled in a Safety Management Manual, a copy of which should be kept on board.
Companies have recognised the need to do integration of IMS with ISO 9001: 2015 and ISO 14001:2015 and that resulted in the creation of an INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - IMS
Quality and Environment Management System and its Processes
Companies following consideration of the knowledge gained throughout the years of operation, postulates of IMS as well as the ISO 9001:2015 and 14001:2015 standards
requirements of implementing a Process approach have chosen to follow the “
"Plan-Do-Check-Act” (PDCA) management, model.
The IMS is best viewed as an organising framework, continually monitored and periodically reviewed to provide adequate direction for the company management in response to changing internal and external factors.
Everyone that is an employee of the company is expected to strive to achieve environmental improvements, as applicable.
Referring to the environmental aspect of IMS, it should be within the scope of the IMS that
the company determines the potential emergencies, including those that can have an environmental impact, i.e. any Operational Control of Aspects & Impacts. The company should maintain documented information of:
- Risks and opportunities that need to be addressed
- Environmental aspects and their associated impacts
- Compliance obligations
- Planning actions.
- Planning is critical to the fulfilment of the environmental policy and the Establishment, implementation and maintenance of the IMS.
The company’s planning process includes:
- Identification of applicable legal and other requirements to which the company subscribes
- The setting of objectives and the establishment of planning actions to achieve them.
- The setting of internal performance criteria where appropriate, including measurable Key Performance Indicators at relevant functions and levels within the Organisation,to support the achievement of the organisational objectives.
- Recognising the importance of planning for the fulfilment of our environmental policy and the establishment, implementation and maintenance of the IMS, the company should have identified:
- All company activities and their environmental aspects that can be controlled or influenced
- All the environmental impacts of each aspect.
- The company considers how to measure/evaluate its policy commitments, objectives and other performance criteria and establishes the Environmental Performance Indicators (EPIs).
- Identifying significant environmental aspects and associated impacts is necessary to determine where control or improvement is needed and to set priorities for management action.
- Changes to the environment, either adverse or beneficial that result wholly or partially from environmental aspects are called environmental impacts.
- The relationship between environmental aspects and associated impacts is one of cause and effect.
- In this respect, the company should identify the environmental aspects of its activities and services,
- within the defined scope of the IMS that it can control and those that it can influence and their associated impacts, considering a life cycle perspective.
When determining those aspects that have or can have significant impacts on the environment, the company should take into account:
- Planned or new developments, new or modified activities, products and services
- Normal/ abnormal conditions and reasonably foreseeable emergencies.
- The company documents this information and communicates its significant environmental aspects among the various levels of employees and keeps it up to date.
The company maintains documented information of it is:
- Environmental aspects and associated environmental impacts
- Criteria used to determine its significant environmental aspects; the criteria are:
- Documented legislation relevant to the aspects
- Declared interest from the interested parties
- Existing references in the environmental policy.
- Significant environmental aspects
- Scope and of its environmental policy.
The process of establishing significant environmental aspects involves the following steps:
- Identifying, evaluating and prioritising environmental aspects.
- Defining goals and environmental programs.
Concerning the provisions of ISO 14001:2015 and the scope of standard IMS, most shipping companies have:
- Negligible influence on the use and end-of-life treatment of the products that are transported through its vessels;
- Negligible influence on the design and construction of vessels before contracting for service with their owners;
- Negligible influence on the use and end-of-life treatment of vessels after the owner’s contracting with other managers or his decision to terminate the cooperation with the company.
The Company reviews the progress of the planning actions and evaluates the need to improve.
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Disclaimer:
“ Out of Box Maritime Thinker” © 2018 and Aleksandar Pudar assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this paper. The information contained in this paper is provided on an “as is” basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own company situation or system, or without consulting a consultancy professional. The content of this paper is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only
