'Green' commitment extends beyond marine environment, writes Ray Smuts
THE JAPANESE reputation for hard work and attention to detail is legendary but having to provide details of how much refuse is produced annually is surely stretching things somewhat?
Not so, says environmentally-committed Mitsui O.S.K.Lines (MOL) which recently produced its first Group Environmental Policy statement under the slogan 'Bluer Oceans and Cleaner Environment'.
It then followed on with the first MOL Group Environmental Report, aimed at reviewing past actions towards the environment, stating social commitments to the environment and developing an own environmental management system.
In his foreword to the report, MOL president Kunio Suzuki says it is recognised that the very science and technology that allows for the creation of affluence also has a negative impact on the earth's environment which makes it clear that environmental protection is an issue that must be embraced.
MOL says in a directive from its Tokyo headquarters that more time is to be allocated to prevent air pollution and properly manage disposal of waste.
The Group Environmental Policy expressly addresses our commitment to overall environmental protection, not just the marine environment, and the positive steps we will take toward achieving this goal.
Enjoying the attention of Dave Giraudeau, managing director of MOL in South Africa, at the time of this writing was a questionnaire probing environmental protection practices in each country.
Among the questions are details of annual volumes of refuse at all branches, divided into categories (paper, bottles, cans, combustible and non-combustible materials), how waste is separated, annual consumption figures for each energy source consumed by the company's offices (electricity, natural gas etc) whether changing working days or working hours would result in energy saving and whether the number of company-owned cars can be reduced or replaced with more fuel-efficient models.
As far as protecting the marine environment itself, MOL has gone to great lengths, in the past 20 or so years in particular, says Andrew Weiss, national sales and assistant marketing manager in South Africa.
Long before the January 2003 deadline to phase out TBT anti-fouling paints, proven to be poisonous to marine life, the line was already stipulating the use of tin-free (TF) paints on all new vessels.
Ballast, used to maintain a vessel's stability, has been blamed for a variety of pollution problems, hence MOL's decree that all its vessels exchange ballast at least 200 miles from the coast in waters 500 metres deeper where possible.
The line started fitting double hulls to new tankers in 1992, at least four years before they became mandatory.
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