Environmental Performance Indicators for Shipyards Brattvaag Skipsverft AS
Table of Content
1. Background
2. Project Methodology
2.1 Environmental Performance Evaluation and Indicators
2.2 Principles for Selection and Implementation of EPIs in this project
2.3 Structure of Indicators
2.4 Project Plan
3. Case Project Description
3.1 Case Project Objectives and Organising
3.1.1 Objectives
3.1.2 Organisation
3.2 Description of Environmental Issues in Present Management System
3.2.1 Environmental Strategy at Brattvaag Skipsverft AS
3.2.2 Environmental Reporting and Indicators
3.2.3 Sources of Environmental Data
3.3 Description of the Chosen System for the Selection EPIs
3.3.1 System Boundaries, Product Systems and Production Processes Included in the project
4. Results
4.1 Approach
4.1.1 Environmental Assessment
4.1.2 Stakeholder Interest Assessment
4.1.3 Prioritising and Selection of Indicators
4.1.4 Testing and Evaluation - Plan
4.2 The Selected EPIs
5. Discussion
5.1 Experiences with the Method
5.2 Implementation in the Management System
Report number
Å 9615
Environmental Performance
Indicators for Shipyards
Brattvaag Skipsverft AS
Arne Langenes
Brattvaag Skipsverft AS
Annik Magerholm Fet
Helen Bardo Stavseng
Møre Research Ålesund
1. Background
The project on Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI) in Industry was initiated by the European Green Table, and was supported financially by the EC Commission, the Swedish Confederation of Industry, the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry and the Norwegian Research Foundation, as well as 12 participation case companies. The EPI-project was closely linked with the development of the new standards for Environmental Management Systems within ISO TC207 (ISO 14000-series). The project period lasted from January 1996 to February 1997.
The general aims of the project was
* further development of concepts and methods for implementation of Environmental Performance Indicators (EPIs) in industry.
* to establish a set of documentation of experiences with methods for development of company specific EPIs.
* to give input to the ongoing standardisation process within ISO TC207/SC4, to the EC Commissions work with EMAS requirements, OECD’s work with national environmental performance indicators, and other relevant organisations.
* to be a basis for further research and development within the area.
The specific aim of the project was to test and evaluate the concepts and methods given in the draft version of «Framework Document for Developing EPIs in industry» [1].
The EPI-project had the following main activities:
· Carry out case projects in 12 Nordic companies to test out methods and to report experiences.
· Organising and carry out two workshops for the exchange of experience between case companies, and to secure a common platform.
· Final reporting.
Ole Jørgen Hanssen from Østfold Research Foundation served as project leader, and reported to a steering group which consisted of the following members:
Tron Kleivane (Conf. for Norw. Business and Industry), Jan-Olaf Willums (World Business Council of Sustainable Development), Sven-Olof Ryding (Swedish Confederation of Industry), Per Otto Grunewald (Elektrolux AS), Frank Myhre (Elkem AS), Atle Kigen (Kværner AS) and Per-Ole Syrrist (Peterson).
Chalmers Industriteknik, Møre Research Ålesund, Veritas DNVI and Østfold Research Foundation served as consultants for the participation case companies.
The 12 case companies that were taking part in the project developed specific EPIs reflecting significant environmental aspects related to their own activities, products and processes, and reported back from their experiences and results trough the project period. This report is one out of 12 case reports in this project.
Presentation of Brattvaag Skipsverft AS
Brattvaag Skipsverft was founded in 1950 as a repair shipyard for fishing boats. However, today the activities are mainly building new ships. The site is located in the middle of Brattvaag and it is surrounded by residences and business buildings. The yard is presently operating large building commissions with a significant number of external employees. The yard is buying steel and the hulls and hull sections are built at supplier yards. The sections are transported to Brattvaag Skipsverft AS and mounted together at the slip and furnished and supplied at the equipping quay.
Detailed information about the yard is summarised in the following:
Brattvaag Skipsverft AS
6270 BRATTVÅG
Telephone: +47 70 20 91 00
Telefax: +47 70 20 91 01
Trade code: 38411
Annual turnover: approximately 300 million Nkr
Number of permanent
employees: approximately 170
Department of production: Steel/plates, welding, carpentry, storage, painting, pipes
and machinery department
Total area: 19 000 m2
Slip: 120 m long and 20 m wide
Equipping quay: 120 m
Crane capacity: Mounting at slip: 60 tonnes, crane boom 16 m
Equipping quay: 8 tonnes, crane boom 14 m
Production halls: Hall for cutting out steel parts: 250 m2, travelling crane
10 tonnes.
Building hall for sections: 55x17 m with travelling cranes
of 10 tonnes and 20 tonnes.
Hall for sand blasting (tent) 100 m2 and
Halls for storage 1100 m2
Area in buildings: Production - 2600 m2. Administration - 900 m2
Brattvaag Skipsverft AS is a part of the Brattvaag Industrier AS which is a company within the Resource Group International concern. figure a illustrates the relationship of Brattvaag Skipsverft AS to the concern. The organisation charts for Brattvaag Industrier and Brattvaag Skipsverft AS is enclosed in Appendix 1.
Figure A: The relationship between Brattvaag Skipsverft AS and Resource Group International (RGI)
Brattvaag Skipsverft AS values a good relation to the local community and a good working environment highly. Through the project «Renere produksjon i verftsindustrien i Møre og Romsdal»[2] an environmental consciousness was established in the company. In this project the material flows related to painting and metallizing were studied. Actions were taken to achieve a cleaner production, e.g. choosing more environmental friendly materials, changing processes to better protecting the environment and preventing it from pollution. Also implementing better routines for waste treatment and investment of a recycling unit for spent thinner were focused. In addition, an environmental strategy and policy was outlined for the company (see chapter 3). The project on cleaner production motivated for further involvement in environmental work.
Objectives for participation in the project NORDIC-EPI
Brattvaag Skipsverft AS is situated in the middle of the centre of Brattvaag. Today’s intensive production is hence creating environmental problems with respect to the local community. The NORDIC-EPI project is an opportunity for Brattvaag Skipsverft AS to prepare for possible emerging environmental requirements from the government in such a way that the working places in the local community may exist in the future as well.
The purposes for Brattvaag Skipsverft AS to participate int the NORDIC-EPI project are to attend to the environment and to organise for appearing environmental requirements from the government and customer, both nationally and internationally. Additionally, the environmental aspects will be integrated in the marketing section and in the general policy of Brattvaag Skipsverft AS. Brattvaag Skipsverft AS also consider local environmental prevention of great value in this connection.
The Resource Group International concern is communicating and trading on a international market and customers who have stricter environmental requirements to the producers. Hence, the one will recognise a stronger demand for environmental consciousness when products and services that are supplied to the international market.
Brattvaag Skipsverft AS needs ways of communicating their environmental performance; locally to their neighbours, local community, customers, regionally to national government and State Pollution Control authorities, investment and insurance companies and to the international market to meet the above mentioned requirements. For this purpose their goal is to develop environmental performance indicators to evaluate and communicate their environmental performance. Brattvaag Skipsverft AS also evaluate the co-operation and the exchange of experiences which is an aim for this project.
2. Project Methodology
2.1 Environmental Performance Evaluation and Indicators
According to the draft guidelines dated December 1996 of the ISO Document 14031 on Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE), EPE is an ongoing internal management process and tool that uses environmental indicators to compare an organisation’s past and present environmental performance with its environmental performance criteria. An organisation should base its planning of EPE and selection of environmental indicators on
· the significant environmental aspects over which it has control and it can be expected to have and influence
· the environmental performance criteria
· information about the local, regional/national or global environmental conditions
· an understanding of the views of interested parties, and
· information needed to meet legal and other requirements
The ISO-document is suggesting that environmental indicators describing the environmental performance of the companies may be classified into the following three areas:
· the management area
· the operational area
· the condition of the environment (Also referred to as Environmental Condition Indicators ECIs)
The management and operational areas are intended to encompass the activities, products and services of the organisation, and the environmental area to consider the condition of the environment.
2.2 Principles for Selection and Implementation of EPIs in this project
The main activity of this project has been to describe and test out a method for identification and implementation of Environmental Performance Indicators in companies. In addition to the elements listed in the draft version of the ISO-14031 standard, the following principles has been regarded as important in this project:
· The selection of EPIs should be, when relevant, based on an understanding of the main impacts on the environment related to the total life cycle of product systems. Environmental impacts from a company’s products and activities may not always be site related, and such knowledge is regarded as important when identifying improvement strategies and activities. When selecting Environmental Performance Indicators, the given companies should therefore take into consideration all processes, raw materials composition, energy, distribution systems and specification for application, utilisation, waste handling of the products as illustrated in figure b. Indicators should be determined for those types of environmental impacts and parts of product systems which are most important.
raw
materials/
energy
inputs
Figure B: Life Cycle of products
· EPIs may be related to the operational area, the environmental area and the management area (as defined in the ISO 14031 Draft). In this project, emphasise was also put on describing product performance. Product performance can be related to the operational area of the company.
· To describe the environmental impacts from companies activities and products, it was suggested to use the system of environmental impact categories developed by the LCA-Nordic- project[3] and based on SETAC methodology in this project. These impact categories are describing the main impacts on environment and health.
· Impacts on resources (non-renewable energy and materials, water and land)
· Impacts on health (toxicological, non-toxicological, work environment)
· Impacts on environment (Global warming, acidification, euthrophication, photo-oxidant formation, ecotoxicological impacts, biological diversity)
These impacts should then be related to the internal sources (products and processes) in the company.
2.3 Structure of Indicators
After the identification of significant environmental aspects and the views of the interested parties, the indicators should be developed and structured. For internal use, an understanding of the relationship between the causes of emissions, discharges and resource consumption and their related impacts are of importance to provide corrective actions. Thus, one level of indicators may describe the environmental parameters from each source or sub-process, whereas the second level may describe a more aggregated level for total emissions or loads. External reporting may be indicators expressing trends and development.
figure c illustrates a possible structure of environmental indicators, based on 3 levels of information. These are:
Figure C: Structure of Environmental Indicators
The base (level 1) for environmental performance indicators may be regular reporting parameters based on the main areas identified through the environmental impact assessment and the stakeholder assessment. This level gives the basis information necessary for internal control functions, and target setting in production facilities and for local management.
The next level is expressing more aggregated indicators, based on the reported parameters. This level is more suitable for external reporting, top local management control and target setting. The top of the triangle expresses the most aggregated level of information for external reporting and top management control and target setting.
2.4 Project Plan
The main activities in each case project were as follows:
1) Establish an initial set of EPIs by
· establishing the aim of the project
· defining scope and system boundaries
· performing a status evaluation of existing information and systems within the company
· identifying the main environmental impacts (environmental impact assessment)
· identifying the potential EPI users needs and requirements (stakeholder assessment).
· expressing the main environmental impacts and stakeholders requirements as initial EPIs.
2) Evaluate the initial set of EPIs by defining and carrying out a plan for internal and external testing of the EPIs.
3) Establish a first permanent set of EPIs based on the results from the first two activities, and make a plan for implementation of the indicators in the company's management system.
Indicators will be dependent of the system boundaries defined in each project, and the level of knowledge of product chains, market and services. Thus, the first step is to define the scope of the project, i.e. which part of the operations, product life cycle chains and management systems of the company should be assessed in the project. The activities, products and services of an organisation includes its physical facilities and equipment, their design and operation and the material and energy flows required. In some cases it can be necessary to define the whole product system from “cradle to grave” in order to get required relevant information and most concerning potential for improvements.
The first step of the environmental impact assessment is to describe environmental platform of the company, such as environmental issues in the present management systems and the availability and quality of existing environmental data.
The environmental assessment should give an overview of the most important environmental problems related to the system, and knowledge about cause and effect relationship. This information may be obtained from the following sources:
· Technical environmental assessment of the internal production process
· Life cycle assessment of chosen product system
· Public information of similar product systems or products