On July 1, 2015, the Island Condor made a "soundless" call on the port of Rotterdam. According to the Environmental Ship Index, this offshore supply ship is the cleanest sea-going vessel to enter the port of Rotterdam this century.
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The ESI is a certificate that has been issued to vessels, at the ship-owners request, by the World Port Climate Initiative since January 1, 2011. The index shows the vessels’ environmental performance in terms of air-polluting emissions (NOx and SOx) and CO2.
Vessels that are awarded a high score on the Environmental Ship Index are eligible for a premium, to the amount of roughly 10% of their port tariffs charges.
As of January 1, 2015, this discount is doubled if the vessels can also prove their NOx emissions are below a certain threshold. Issuing premiums to sustainable ships is in line with the Port Authority’s policy to make Rotterdam the most sustainable port of its kind.
Last year the Port Authority awarded close to EUR 2 million in premiums to vessels that score high on the Environmental Ship Index.
Island Condor is a Platform Supply Vessel built in 2014. The vessel is owned and operated by Island Offshore; a privately owned company providing high quality solutions for the offshore oil industry based on a fleet of advanced high quality service and subsea service vessels.
Island Condor is designed and built with the objective of minimizing the environmental footprint. The hull design UT 776 CD was first introduced in 2008; the same year as the World Port Climate Initiative was launched.
She is built to DnV GL Clean Design notation which indicates reduced emission to air and reduced discharge to sea compared to minimum standard. SCR technology is used in order to reduce the specific emission of NOX with more than 90%.
"The crews on our vessels take pride in operating environmentally friendly. Since 2008 we have seen a reduction of CO2 emission of more than 30% as a direct result of fuel saving initiatives from crew members.
"Island Offshore, and Island Condor in particular, is honored to be appointed ‘most sustainable ship 2015’ and take it as an acknowledgement of our continuous effort in reducing our environmental footprint," says Managing Director in Island Offshore Management AS, Håvard Ulstein.
2015’s ESI Top 5 in Rotterdam
- Island Condor offshore vessel 94,9 (out of 100 ESI points)
- Skandi Iceman tugboat 91,4
- Tarnvag oil/product tanker 84,4
- Bit Oktania oil/product tanker 81,6
- Coral Energy LNG tanker 80,5
Ports and other maritime service providers around the world can use the index to reward ships and consequently encourage sustainable behaviour in the shipping sector.
By now, over 45 ports and other maritime service providers award a bonus to ‘ESI ships’ with a specific minimum score on the index. These include the ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp, Los Angeles, New York, Sohar, Vancouver, Tokyo and – since two weeks – Ulsan in South Korea.
The World Ports Climate Initiative is a collective of 55 key ports that work to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, and specifically CO2.
The partners do so under the aegis of the International Association of Ports and Harbors, the foremost interest group for sea ports worldwide. ■