PRAGMATIC COST EFFECTIVE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF SUPPORT SHIPS

摘要

As environmental issues rise to the top of the agenda for Government and Industry there is an increasing need to develop robust environmental methodologies to identify and mitigate the impacts that large platforms such as new ships have on the environment. The MOD has an internal system, termed "POEMS", for the environmental assessment of projects. POEMS is based upon concepts drawn from the international standards ISO14001 (Environmental Management Systems) and ISO14040 (Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment). However, ISO14001 is focussed on organisations and operations and ISO14040 can be highly detailed and hence expensive. Whilst POEMS overcomes some of these difficulties, it is a onesize fits all process, and has many limitations that risk excessive expenditure and/or reduced benefit. To overcome these, Frazer-Nash has developed an environmental assessment methodology (compliant with POEMS requirements), that is pragmatic, appropriate to the scale of the project, scientifically robust, and highly cost-effective. The method and its application to support ships are described. The method can be applied to any new major development or acquisition project, both military and non-military. By clearly segregating risks and impacts and evaluating these by different bespoke methods, it avoids both the potential costs of undertaking unwarranted assessments and the difficulties of becoming overwhelmed with a plethora of different issues, impacts and risks. This provides a clear focus to direct attention to those issues that are significant and can be influenced. Conducted early in the lifecycle, the method feeds directly into various tiers of the requirements specification, design development and contractual process. The method has been successfully applied to a range of large development and procurement projects within the Ministry of Defence and the defence industry, including military support ships, with clear benefits in terms of cost effectiveness, impact minimisation and risk reduction.