Babcock has been certified by Lloyd's Register as an approved service supplier of Green Passports for ships (the popular name for the Inventory of Hazardous Materials, required under the Ship Recycling Convention), further extending its range of marine environmental-compliance services.

The Ship Recycling Convention was adopted in May 2009 with the aim of improving safety standards and reducing environmental pollution arising from the recycling of ships. Under the convention, any ship (existing or newbuild) greater than 500 gross tonnage will in future be required to have a Green Passport Inventory. The Green Passport identifies and lists materials hazardous or potentially hazardous to health or the environment onboard a vessel in the ship's structure, systems and equipment, and is maintained and updated throughout the ship's life. Although not yet ratified as a statutory requirement, Green Passport Inventories are already available in preparation for the anticipated legislation and as a certifiable demonstration of a ship owner's green credentials.

Lloyd's Register has now appointed Babcock as one of the few approved service suppliers of sampling checks and testing for Green Passport Inventories in accordance with the requirements of the new convention. This follows an audit of Babcock's operation, in which the company was required to demonstrate suitable procedures and experience to undertake the surveys and testing required.

Babcock's Green Passport service encompasses verification surveys covering visual and sampling checks and testing for hazardous materials (such as asbestos, PCBs, tributyltin (TBT) anti-fouling, and ozone-depleting substances such as CFCs) onboard ships, including advice on numbers and locations of samples, and preparation of reports on the quantities, locations and estimates of these materials. Babcock is also approved to compile the Green Passport Inventory of Hazardous Materials Onboard on behalf of ship owners and operators, which can then be submitted to Lloyd's Register for independent approval and verification.

Renewal surveys will be required throughout the life of the ship, at intervals not greater than five years, and for Lloyd's Register class vessels the Green Passport is reviewed on an annual basis. In addition to facilitating safer and more environmentally-sound dismantling of ships, the Green Passport or IHM provides a formal summary of hazards, which can help to promote better hazard management onboard, enhancing safety and enabling better long-term liability planning.

Babcock's Green Passport service is one of a range of services the company provides to help ship owners ensure compliance with statutory or otherwise desirable environmental regulations. This includes services individually tailored to the vessel to ensure compliance with nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions requirements, including EU Directive 1999/32/EC and 2005/33/EC amendments, and the MARPOL Annexe VI amendments which came into force this month (July 2010) imposing even more stringent operating restrictions with a maximum 1% sulphur emission. These services are geared to provide ship owners with an assessment and proposed compliance solution offering best value, least time, lowest risk and greatest convenience.

Commenting on the new Green Passport service, Babcock's Marine Division Integrated Technology director Ian Lindsay said, 'We are delighted to have been approved by Lloyd's Register to offer the Green Passport service, as part of our range of services to help ship owners achieve environmentally-friendly operation. Our engineers understand particular operational requirements and can develop options to enable cost-effective compliance.'

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