Brussels, 2 April 2015 – Major companies
such as H&M, Tetra Laval, ABB, Philips, Volvo and Volkswagen do not want to
be associated with substandard shipbreaking practices in South Asia and have
asked their forwarders – the shipping companies they use to transport their
goods – to adopt sustainable ship recycling policies.
In January, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform
published its annual list of global dumpers including 641 ships that were sold
for substandard shipbreaking on the tidal beaches of India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh. Several of these ships were owned by companies that the members of
the Clean Shipping Network (CSN), a network of 32 multinationals [1], use to
transport their products. MSC, Hanjin, MOL, Yang Ming, Conti, G Bulk and Danaos
were some of the ship owners that last year made a deliberate choice to sell
their end-of-life vessels to a substandard shipbreaking yard for the sake of
higher profits – a choice of profits at the cost of people and the environment.
CSN members have now reacted to this
irresponsible practice with a statement condemning the breaking of ships on
tidal beaches. In the statement, shipping companies mentioned on the Platform’s
list of dumpers are asked to review their policies and practices regarding the
selling and recycling of end-of-life vessels. The shipping companies are also
asked to report on their ship recycling policy in the Clean Shipping Index
questionnaire, a tool used by leading international cargo owners to evaluate
the environmental performance of their providers of sea transports.
Eleven of the CSN members even went one
step further by sending a letter directly to their business partners in the
maritime industry stating that working with companies that do not deal
responsibly with their end-of-life fleet is unacceptable for them. They warned
that sustainable ship recycling is an issue they will consider when signing
agreements with shipping companies, and stated that poor performance in the
field of environment and social policies have consequences for their business
decisions.
“We believe collaboration is a must to
bring about systematic change to the sea transport industry. The Clean Shipping
Network members use the procurement process to enhance sustainable development
and to raise awareness on how the shipping industry impacts the
environment", says Sara Sköld, Director of the Clean Shipping Index.
With increasing pressure from also their
customers, many ship owners will have to seriously consider revising their ship
recycling practices. Currently thirteen large shipping companies follow
sustainable ship recycling policies, including Royal Dutch Boskalis, Canadian
CSL Group and Singapore-based China Navigation Company. More recently, German
Hapag-Lloyd joined the group of ship owners that opt for ship recycling off the
beach. They did so on principle, even if they have to compromise on their
profits – just as the other progressive ship owners committed to the proper
end-of-life management of their fleet, they simply do not want to be
responsible for polluting sensitive coastal zones and putting workers lives at
risk during dirty and dangerous shipbreaking on tidal beaches.
Quote from CSN member KappAhl
By Fredrika Klarén, Sustainability Manager
at KappAhl:
"At KappAhl, one important task in our
sustainability work is to contribute to a sustainable development in our
suppliers’ business. Thus we take measures to promote a shipping industry built
on environmental and social values.
Sustainability requirements are a part of
all of our supplier relations. We have followed the development of social
issues in the shipping industry closely, and have seen the reporting from the
Shipbreaking Platform regarding ship dismantling on the beaching yards of
Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, which leads to environmental pollution and
unsafe working conditions.
To address this issue, we have integrated
requirements regarding a policy for safe and environmentally sound recycling of
vessels in our tender process with forwarders, with good response from our
suppliers. But, in the end, the availability of ship owners with the right
policy and control systems is low, and we have not been able to see a direct
effect from our requirements.
We are therefore very happy to now
collaborate with our fellow members in the Clean Shipping Network in order to
address the urgent need for action when it comes to this matter – we hope that
it will contribute to the change that is needed to end these unsustainable
practices which effect the environment and people’s lives so negatively."
Read more about KappAhl’s sustainability
work
NOTES
[1] The Clean Shipping Network was
established in 2008 and has its roots in Sweden. Thirty-two multinationals are
already members, including well-known companies such as H&M, Volkswagen,
Volvo, Ericsson, Tetra Laval, Philips, ABB. When contracting forwarders they
use the Clean Shipping Index, a simple tool which can be consulted over the
internet and that gives the multinationals an overview of included shipping
companies’ environmental performance related to the emission of carbon dioxide,
sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, the use of chemicals and waste management. The
multinationals only do business with owners who register their ships in the
Index. Currently there are 48 shipping companies listed, including nineteen of
the twenty largest shipping companies. In total there are more than 2,000 ships
included in the Index.
Source:
NGO Shipbreaking Platform. 2 April 2015
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