Environmental Management at Fiskerstrand Verft AS: A 30 Year Journey

Abstract

Fiskerstrand Verft is a multipurpose shipyard with extensive expertise and activities in shipbuilding, maintenance, repair and conversion/modification of ships. The yard is exposed to a range of different environmental challenges related to its business which trigged the yard to develop and implement health and safety, and environmental management systems. This chapter gives an overview of environmental management at Fiskerstrand Verft over a 30-year period, written from the perspective of the first author as CEO. The activities from 1991–94 mainly considered Level 1 in the CapSEM Model with annual accounting of materials and wastes, emissions to air and discharges to ocean. The yard participated in various R & D environmental projects and during the period 1994–99 these were extended with activities corresponding to life cycle thinking according to Levels 2 and 3. In 1999, Fiskerstrand Verft was the first Norwegian shipyard that prepared and published an environmental report. The yard was certified as an environmental lighthouse company in 2000, the first in Norway. During the period 2004–2008, the yard further developed their systems and began to transition to Level 4. The life cycle perspective for ships and technology has been at the center of the development of green technologies for ships. This journey continues today, passing the 30 year mark, and has contributed invaluable knowledge about the CapSEM toolbox and how it can be applied to shipyard operations.