Inventorying hazardous materials: Assignment of ‘Green Passport’ class notation

Lagersmit is increasingly hearing and reading about environmental friendly regulations. One of these is the ‘Green Passport’. Some of the regulations have already come into force. What you see is a need to summarise the identification, quantification and location of materials which may harm the environment and people when the fittings or equipment containing such materials are removed or when the ship is recycled.

What is the 'green passport'?

The Green Passport is essentially an inventory of all the materials on board a ship which may be hazardous to people’s health or the environment and which require careful handling or special awareness. The inventory accompanies the ship throughout its operational life. It is reviewed annually by a class society and renewed every five years. At the end of the vessel’s life, the Inventory of Hazardous Materials helps shipbreaking recycling yards formulate safe and environmentally friendly means of decommissioning the ship.

Green passport: Three parts

Part 1: Inventory of potentially hazardous materials used in construction
For new ships, the shipbuilder is required to prepare Part 1 in consultation with equipment manufacturers. Thereafter, it is passed on to the ship owner. For existing ships, Part 1 must be prepared by the ship owner based on the blueprint and in consultation with the shipbuilder, equipment manufacturers, etc.

Shipbuilders must work closely with all their suppliers to ensure that all the equipment, parts and materials provided are environmentally safe or specifically itemised on the Inventory. These suppliers, such as Lagersmit, must indicate and declare whether or not substances have been identified using the ‘Supplier’s declaration’ approach established by the IMO Guidelines.

The approach consists of two declarations as follows:

• Material Declaration (MD) – A declaration prepared by the suppliers, including the upstream suppliers in the equipment/system supply chain, detailing the specific substances including the system/item, the substance and the amount of the substance.
• Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC) – A declaration by the supplier to confirm conformity of the delivered product and related Material Declaration to the law and compliance with appropriate management/control requirements relating to the chemical substance contained in the product.

Ship owners must request their suppliers to submit the above declaration forms for the products at the time of purchase. After this inventory has been completed, the Green Passport must become a controlled document. The Class Notation implies a periodic audit to ensure it is up to date.

Part 2 Operationally Generated Wastes and part 3 Stores

Parts 2 and 3 of the Passport must be completed by the ship owner prior to the ship’s final voyage to the recycling facility. Operationally generated waste includes dry tank residues, bulk (non-oily) and oily waste/residues. This inventory may be prepared by means of an on-board survey by the crew. With regard to Stores, all gases, chemicals and other packed items must be documented.

What are the key benefits?

• Helps raise staff awareness of the materials on board which require special handling
• Minimises the impact of the ship’s operations on the environment
• Helps the shipbreaking yard to formulate a safe and environmentally friendly way of disposing of the vessel
• Ascertains compliance with the new regulations during the construction stage of new vessels
• Ensures that all the mandatory documentation for vessels in service is available and updated and adds value to the vessel

Green solutions

Lagersmit also has green solutions for your vessel during its operational life, like the Supreme Ventus® and Supreme Athmos®.

View all our green solutions