Supports the shipping industry in its journey to sustainability and continuous improvement
Bureau Veritas is well known as one of the world’s leading organizations in providing classification and statutory verifications in the shipping industry. Another major business line of Bureau Veritas is the Industry and Facilities portfolio of services, including certifications and verifications, based on international and national volunteer or regulatory standards and norms.
Bureau Veritas Greece Industry and Facilities department operates for over 3 decades, being among the key players in the certification market and the only certification body being fully operational in Greece with local auditors, among the classification societies. This gives the advantage of fast response and at the same time awareness of the Greek shipping market, without lacking the international experience.
Under a new leadership since the beginning of 2022, Bureau Veritas Industry and Facilities, led by Ms Maria Chachali, continues to be at the heart of developments in the field of certification and verification activities. In that sense Bureau Veritas Certification team empowers shipping companies to implement, measure and achieve their sustainability objectives.
Forthcoming Environmental, Social and Governance reporting requirements is a new hot topic that will tackle the shipping industry. Sustainability reporting is increasingly important for investors and civil society organizations that now require more and better information from companies about their impact. It also encourages companies to develop a more responsible approach on how they do business by obliging them to consider their impacts on sustainability issues. Verified reporting enables stakeholders to evaluate the non-financial performance of large companies. It requires that organizations provide tangible, credible demonstrations of their level of sustainability by following proper guidelines for sustainability reporting.
In April 2021, the Commission adopted a proposal for a new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which will come into force in October 2022.
The CSRD extends the scope of the existing legislation to include all companies with over 250 employees, plus those with over 10 employees which are listed on regulated markets (except listed micro-enterprises). It makes the assurance of reported information obligatory and introduces more detailed reporting requirements, including a requirement to report according to mandatory EU sustainability reporting standards. The CSRD also obliges companies to ‘tag’ all reported information digitally, so that it is machine readable and feeds into the European single access point envisaged in the capital markets union action plan.
It goes without saying that reporting companies need to assess the reliability of their data and the accuracy of their statements in an effort to improve the transparency of their reporting and build trust among stakeholders. This is where Bureau Veritas Certification stands, by providing independent report assurance services to help companies prove the reliability and accuracy of their sustainability claims.
Continual improvement is a core objective of every company and a basic concept of all ISO driven management systems. The most common ISO standards in the maritime sector are presented below:
- ISO 9001 is actually the founder of ISO standards family. Quality management systems help companies to improve customer satisfaction thanks to a relentless focus on customer objectives. It boosts organizational efficiency by aligning quality management system and company’s core processes. Companies are required to manage risk effectively by cultivating risk based thinking throughout the organization.
- ISO 14001 describing environmental system requirements helps companies to achieve a balance between the environment, society and the economy. Societal expectations for sustainable development, transparency and accountability have evolved with increasingly stringent legislation, growing pressures on the environment from pollution, inefficient use of resources, improper waste management, climate change, degradation of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity. This has led organizations to adopt a systematic approach to environmental management by implementing environmental management systems aiming to contribute to the environmental pillar of sustainability.
- ISO 50001 is the international standard oriented towards energy management. As every management system, ISO 50001 goes beyond legal compliance, it integrates requirements for both fleet and land based operations. Effective implementation of this standard provides a systematic approach to the improvement of energy performance that can transform the way organizations manage energy. By integrating energy management into business practice, organizations can establish a process of continual improvement of energy performance. By improving energy performance and associated energy costs companies can be more competitive, as they find opportunities for cost savings, gaining at the same time reputation as “green” oriented companies.
- ISO 45001, covering health and safety, is intended to enable an organization to provide safe and healthy workplaces, for both crew and land based staff, prevent work-related injury and ill health, and continually improve its health and safety performance.
- ISO 27001 is the most popular and recognized standard in the field of information security. Information Security has become a major challenge in the maritime sector. Electronic communications, data exchange and storage, new information systems that support operations and compliance to regulatory requirements, locally based or cloud hosted storage equipment are serious concerns for a shipping company. On the other hand, ransomware, malware, targeted attacks through advanced hacking and social engineering set the operation and the continuity of a shipping company into risk. ISO 27001 can be an assurance for the management of a shipping company that the information security processes are effective and ensure business continuity. It takes the initiatives and efforts from the key IT persons to the system’s level.
It is important to point out that all ISO management system standards can be fully integrated thus facilitating the simpler, more efficient and coherent monitoring and improvement of performance.
It is obvious that Bureau Veritas either as Classification society or as Certification body seals companies’ reputation by offering certification, inspection and verification added-value services that meet their demands.