Green Award Launches Certification of Inland Passenger Vessels

Green Award, the quality mark for ships that meet the above-industry standards, expands to a new ship type. From 1st of January 2017 the Green Award certificate is available for inland passenger vessels.

Green Award certifies sea-going and inland navigation ships that go beyond the industry required standards. Established in 1994 as a certification scheme for sea-going oil tankers, Green Award has grown to a world-wide recognized quality assessment organization accepting 5 types of sea-going ships and with incentive providers all over the world. In 2011 the foundation introduced a certificate for inland freight vessels. The program has proved to be an enormous success with over 590 European inland barges currently certified and many ports and commercial organizations supporting Green Award fleet with significant discounts.

From this year, advantages of the Green Award certificate are available for inland waterways passenger vessels. Ferries, river cruise ships and day cruisers are eligible for the certification. The requirements for passenger ships are similar to the requirements for freight inland vessels with focus on the safety and environmental aspects. If a ship has hotel and catering facilities on board, then a Green Key certificate with at least the bronze level is required.

In the pilot phase Green Award tested the requirements and inspected the ferry ‘Schoonhoven’ and the day cruise boat ‘Z8’. Both vessels have successfully passed the inspection and obtained the Green Award certificate. The Green Award certificate proves that ships apply the best practices and minimize their environmental impact.

Since Green Award certificate implies that the ship’s owner is socially responsible, there is significant interest from ports and companies to become incentive providers for inland passenger vessels. Green Award is currently is contact with several interested parties and incentives for this new category of ships are expected to be announced in 2017.