NORDENs views on the environment

NORDEN wishes to help improve maritime safety and limit pollution from vessels. The continuous improvement of NORDEN’s environmental performance is not only best for the environment, but also the best solution for NORDEN’s customers, shareholders, employees and other stakeholders. The Company has established a whistleblower system designed to ensure compliance with the environmental policy by making it easier for employees to report non-compliance.

Consequently, NORDEN will continue its efforts to ensure compliance with the International Maritime Organisation’s conventions and guidelines and remains committed to finding global solutions to discourage reflagging and unfair competition.

In particular, NORDEN will work on the Company’s performance in the following areas related to NORDEN’s owned vessels:

Air emissions – NORDEN is aware that the Company’s activities contribute to climate change.
Biodiversity – NORDEN will continue its efforts to protect maritime biodiversity through responsible disposal of ballast water and other measures.
Marine life – NORDEN will use environmentally friendly bottom paint and double-hulled tankers.
Waste disposal – NORDEN will seek more efficient resource consumption and reduction of the waste resulting from our activities.
Bunker oil – NORDEN will ensure compliance with the sulphur content controls in force in the SECA zones that our vessels traverse. We will also ensure that the bunker oil used by the Company’s fleet, including vessels held on charter, have a maximum average sulphur content of 2.7%. (IMO’s convention sets the cap on the sulphur content of fuel oil used on board ships at 4.5%)

NORDEN’s views on human and employee rights

NORDEN supports and respects the protection of human rights and refrains from any actions that may, directly or indirectly, encourage or contribute to infringement of these rights. NORDEN respects the provisions of the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention 2006 and local legislation. NORDEN regularly carries out occupational health assessments. All occupational health issues are included in the workplace assessment, and the employees are involved in the process. A whistleblower system is in the process of being established in order to make it easier for employees to report infringement of human and employee rights.

NORDEN’s views on anti-corruption

NORDEN neither accepts nor offers bribes in any form and strives to avoid facilitation payments. NORDEN to a limited extent makes contributions to charities, research projects, political parties, etc. subject to various restrictions.

Maritime transport is an environmentally efficient form of transport

As a result of globalisation, the length and breadth of the world is interconnected and goods are transported around the globe. Shipping accounts for almost 90% of all transport. Today, about one ton of goods per human being in the world a year is transported by sea. Naturally, this enormous transport load also means a significant overall fuel consumption, resulting in significant CO2 emissions to the detriment of our climate and the environment. Although shipping is the most environmentally sound means of transport with far lower CO2 emissions, and thus less environmental impact per transported ton of cargo than, for example train, lorry or air transport, it is essential that the industry take measures to reduce emissions.

At the end of 2007, NORDEN owned 14 vessels in all. These vessels are under the Company’s full control, and it is therefore quite natural that the environmental and climate measures are focused on the owned fleet. Its flexible business model means that NORDEN in addition to these owned vessels operates some 200 vessels held on charter for shorter or longer periods of time, and the Company controls these vessels only commercially. Emissions from NORDEN’s fleet are thus influenced by what combination of vessels the Company chooses in its portfolio.

Emissions from vessels are calculated on the basis of a number of assumptions, such as engine size, type and load in operation. Under these assumptions, NORDEN estimated the CO2 emissions from its owned fleet at approximately 362,000 tons in 2007. Despite NORDEN’s commitment to continuously improving and reducing emissions from its owned fleet, a larger volume of business inevitably means greater emissions. The consumption of bunker oil from vessels under NORDEN’s commercial control resulted in overall emissions of approximately 2.6 million tons of CO2 in 2007. This total was calculated on the basis of bunker oil purchased and is not comparable with the emissions from the fleet of owned vessels as the total also includes emissions from vessels held on charter.

Funding of research and development projects

New challenges arising as a result of the increasing globalisation and a stronger general concern for the impact of sea transports on communities and the environment are prompting shipping companies to reassess and change their community position and accountability. The challenges are many and diverse. We are faced by major challenges in terms of pollution and relevant issues in relation to safety at sea and ashore. The question is how these challenges may be translated into concrete requirements for the shipping companies to comply with and how the shipping industry can develop the new skills and competences necessary to handle these challenges. In order to promote knowledge in this respect, NORDEN has decided to sponsor a PhD stipend with the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) focusing on the subject ”Building Social Performance Capabilities in the Shipping Industry”. The project will be incorporated in a larger shipping research group at CBS and will be carried out under the joint supervision of Martin Jes Iversen, assistant professor and Henrik Sornn-Friese, associate professor.

NORDEN has also decided to collaborate with Decision3 on the so-called GreenSteam development project. The project begins with a comprehensive analysis of the test vessel’s fittings and hydrodynamics. A data collection system is then installed on board the test vessel, and data collection is started under operating conditions and continued until the advanced mathematical modelling tool is able to calculate the possible saving with adequate precision. Finally, the project will enter its operational phase, consisting in the delivery of the final, operational trim optimising system (GreenSteam). If the results meet NORDEN’s expectations, the system will be fitted on board all the Company’s owned vessels.

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