ClassNK picked up the Environmental Protection Award for its activities at the IBJ Awards held on 21 November. This award recognizes organizations that have made significant contributions to reducing marine pollution, ClassNK said in its press release.
Aiming to ensure that ships being recycled at the end of their operation lives pose less risk to human health or the environment, the IMO adopted the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009 (HKC).
The HKC requires to develop and maintain the ship-by ship Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) identifying the quantity and location of hazardous items on board, and to develop Ship Recycling Facility Plans (SRFP) and Ship Recycling Plans (SRP) in line with the proposed requirements of the convention at the recycling stage. ClassNK has been proactive in supporting compliance to new regulation throughout the industry.
ClassNK provided “PrimeShip-GREEN/SRM” a cloud-based software solution that creates the IHM almost automatically from the shipbuilders’ input of product locations, which has quickly grown to become the de facto world shipping standard. The software significantly reduces the man hours that it would typically take to manually input the location and quantity of hazardous materials contained on vessels.
Meanwhile, although the HKC has yet to enter into force, several ship recycling facilities have proactively improved their facilities and developed Ship Recycling Facility Plans (SRFPs) required for verification by a competent authority according to the HKC in a bid toward safer and greener ship recycling. In response to this growing demand for verification, ClassNK has issued the HKC Statement of Compliance for ship recycling facilities in China, Japan, and India after conducting reviews of each SRFP and on-site inspections.