IMCA Newsroom

Press Release 06/04

USING ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Companies throughout the world are seeing a growth in the number of their stakeholders and other interested parties. They also notice that the information about the company that these stakeholders now expect to receive far exceeds the traditional financial information given in an annual report. In particular, this increasing audience expects information on environmental performance, policy and objectives as well as health and safety information and sometimes data on social issues as well.

"Several organisations have published guidelines on environmental reporting and this data is becoming increasingly useful to outside stakeholders and for use within internal management systems, for company benchmarking and company strategic planning," explains Hugh Williams, Chief Executive of IMCA - the International Marine Contractors Association.

"Consideration of the best way to measure, analyse and present the data has led to the development of the concept of performance indicators which facilitate comparison by filtering out the size of the activities. In this way, one can compare a company's performance data over the years despite changing activity levels, and one can also compare the data of different companies of differing sizes.

"During an IMCA 'Setting Performance Indicators' workshop held in mid-2001, the functions of EPIs to be developed for IMCA and IMCA members were identified. We contracted URS Netherlands to study this topic and the suite of environmental performance indicators (EPIs) recommended for IMCA members, together with guidance on using them. Our newly published 'Guidelines for the Use of Environmental Performance Indicators' is the result of this work. The guidelines define all the terms, suggest ways of collecting and using the data and provide default factors if, for example, conversion factors are not available. We believe the Guidelines should stimulate the use of EPIs by IMCA members."

This new IMCA publication, which costs £30 for IMCA members and £60 for non-members has sections devoted to:

• The Basics - explaining what an EPI is, and the current state of the art
• IMCA and EPIs - how IMCA and its members can benefit from EPIs; and linking IMCA members' activities (laying pipelines, lifting, diving, construction, decommissioning, remote & ROV operations, offshore surveys, and rock dumping); applicable legislation and relevant industry requirements
• The IMCA EPIs - an overview of applicable EPIs; what EPIs will suit IMCA members best and are therefore recommended; and nine pages devoted to collecting the necessary information under key headings - operations, spills, energy, consumables, water, air, and waste.

As well as sections on abbreviations and references (including websites used for the compilation of the report) and common conversion factors, "Guidelines for the Use of Environmental Performance Indicators" includes in the appendix an EPI tabular format for ease of completion.

Notes to Editors (common)

• IMCA is an international association with over 450 members in more than 50 countries, representing offshore, marine and underwater engineering companies. IMCA has four technical divisions, covering marine/specialist vessel operations, offshore diving, hydrographic survey and remote systems and ROVs, plus geographic sections for the Americas Deepwater, Asia-Pacific, Europe & Africa and Middle East & India regions, as well as a core focus on safety, the environment, competence and training. IMCA seeks to promote its members' common interests, to resolve industry-wide issues and to provide an authoritative voice for its members.
• IMCA publishes some 200 guidance notes and technical reports. These have been developed over the years and are widely distributed. They are a definition of what IMCA stands for, including widely recognised diving and ROV codes of practice, DP documentation, marine good practice guidance, the Common Marine Inspection Document, safety recommendation, outline training syllabi and the IMCA competence scheme guidance. In addition to the range of printed guidance documents, IMCA also produces safety promotional materials, circulates information notes and safety flashes.
• Judith Patten is here to help you if you want any additional information on IMCA; would like to discuss a feature article; want to organise interviews with key members of the IMCA team, etc.