19.12.2019
10 years of emission reduction
The Solstad Green Operations™ campaign was started in September 2009 and has been a great success thanks to the crew on our vessels that have contributed! We have for a decade been leading the way towards a higher attention for own and client’s emissions and carbon footprint while being open and transparent on our way to a more environmentally friendly offshore shipping.
Solstad Green Operations was started by Tor Inge Dale in 2009. He started as an Environmental and Development Engineer in Solstad and after holding various Manager titles he became Chief Operating Officer in 2015.
First year of the campaign resulted in 922 green operations and we have since then conducted 151 799 in total which averages out to 16 866 green operations yearly. 292 000 tons of fuel has been saved to benefit our customers, and lead to 927 542 tons of CO2 being prevented from entering the atmosphere due to excellent focus from our crew over the years.
New vessels that has come into the fleet have adopted the Green mindset fast and the crew has adapted quickly and begun recording Green Operations.
Over the years our Green Operations campaign and environmental work has received many awards for our effort towards greener shipping. As early as 2012 the Norwegian Ministry of Environment mentioned Solstad and our SGO campaign as a good example of good environmental practice in their Report to Norwegian Government (White Paper) and as late as 2019 we received recognition from ConocoPhillips for our green initiatives, this time for SGO in combination with ESS (Energy Storage Systems) batteries.
During the Green Operations campaign we have managed to reduce the overall fleet consumption by 17% and knowing we will probably end up with a fuel consumption of 250.000 tons in 2019 it is easy to see that a few percent each year means an incredible reduction of emissions and makes a huge difference to the environment.
It is hard to pull out just one examples of good practice, because all our vessels are important to this campaign and they all contribute and deserves credit. If a few candidates should be mentioned, we can start with Normand Maximus. There has been excellent ship management and energy management on board from day one. From 2017 to 2019 they managed to reduce their consumption, in active operation (DP – Standby – Transit) by staggering 20%, this is nothing more than impressive and a good example of what team effort can do.
Another excellent example is Normand Sun, which has been a steady contributor to our Green Operations campaign since they joined the fleet in 2017. The vessel was fitted with an ESS system (batteries) and as such in a better position than others to save fuel, however, this is only partly true. ESS systems are like any other systems, they need to be used and used correctly. From day one, all vessel departments have been dedicated and determined to get as much benefit out from the ESS system as possible, and it shows, 1.722 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) reduced, 20 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) reduced, and 645 tons of fuel reduced for the client since startup. To put it in context, a typical passenger vehicle emits about 5 metric tons of CO2 per year.
With a larger fleet we have seen a need for better tools for handling the flow of recordings and fuel initiatives. Solstad joined forces with Yxney Maritime in Oslo and started developing an online web interface and graphical display for easy access to all our key environmental factors, both for offshore and onshore sites. The program is called MARESS (Maritime Efficiency Supervisory Software) and is our software for Energy Management offshore onboard all vessels, ranging from larger construction vessels to smaller Aqua vessels.
In the future we will strengthen and improve the way we communicate and work by incorporating many of the forthcoming rules and regulations into MARESS. As an example, we received DNV-GL approval for our Digital SEEMP I (Ship Energy Efficient Management Plan) and SEEMP II system in 2018 – 2019 and we are these days finalizing IMO DCS reporting using the same solution. Both good examples of better use of already recorded data.
We would like to say thanks for all the work that has been done with our Solstad Green Operations, every little recording count. The hard work shows that we care and that we aim to minimize the negative impact our operations have to the environment. By keeping the Solstad Green Operations alive and strong for the next decades to come we will do exactly that.