Green Award for inland shipping: how ShipControl helps

More and more shippers, ports and clients ask for the Green Award certificate. It shows that an inland vessel sails cleaner and safer than the law requires, and in participating ports it earns discounts or other benefits. In this article you read how the certification works and which parts of ShipControl help you meet the requirements and prove it.

What is the Green Award?

The Green Award is a certificate from the independent Green Award Foundation in Rotterdam. A programme for inland shipping has existed since 2011. After an application and an initial assessment, a Green Award inspector inspects the vessel on board. The certificate is valid for three years from the inspection date.

The Requirements consist of two parts. On both, the vessel has to reach a minimum number of points:

• Sheet A, engine performance: the emission class, the after-treatment and the energy consumption of all main and auxiliary engines.
• Sheet B, additional requirements: fuel, energy saving, fuel-efficient sailing, waste and maintenance, pollution prevention, safety and emission reduction.

Where ShipControl helps

Many points are earned with technology, such as cleaner engines, shore power or solar panels. Software does not help there. But a large part of the requirements is about record keeping, discipline on board and evidence during the inspection. That is where ShipControl makes the difference.

Waste and maintenance (B40)

• Waste records: if the vessel has no ISO 14001 certificate or ship environmental plan, records of the delivery of bilge water, plastic, household waste, ship waste and small chemical waste are mandatory. With the Waste streams module the crew records every delivery with date, quantity and reception facility, and you create an overview for the inspector in one click.
• Planned maintenance: an approved planned maintenance system earns points. With Parts and Tasks you plan maintenance per component, by date or by running hours, and record when it was carried out. Green Award decides itself which system it accepts, so check this with them in advance.

Fuel-efficient sailing and CO2 (B30)

• Fuel-efficient sailing course: a certificate of a fuel-efficient sailing course on board earns points. In Training and Certificates you see per crew member which courses they took and when certificates expire.
• Consumption per voyage: Green Award values records of CO2 emissions per voyage, tonne and kilometre. In Transport you record per voyage what was loaded and unloaded and how much was consumed. That is the basis for this calculation.
• Proof of shore power: for the use of shore power Green Award asks for proof, such as invoices. You keep those per vessel in Documents.

Safety (B60) and pollution prevention (B50)

• Drills: fire drills and man-overboard drills have to take place every six months. Set them up as a recurring task in Tasks and you see per vessel that they were done on time.
• Incidents: taking part in Platform Zero Incidents earns points. With Incident reports the crew records incidents and you make sure they are followed up.
• Bunkering checklist: a safety checklist for bunkering is a requirement. With the Audit module you turn it into a fixed questionnaire that the crew fills in at every bunkering.

Certificates and documents

During the inspection the inspector wants to see evidence, such as an ISO 14001 certificate, certificates of stern tube seals and declarations about the lubricants used. In Certificates and Documents everything is together per vessel, with a reminder before anything expires.

Tip: do an internal audit first

Put the questions from the Requirements in a questionnaire in the Audit module and go through it yourself before the inspection. Whatever is not in order yet, you turn straight into a task. That way you know in advance how many points you will score and you won't face any surprises.

Want to see what this looks like for your vessel? Book a demo. More about the Green Award and the current Requirements can be found at greenaward.org.