Practical actions on environmental sustainability

At the end of April the South America Committee hosted a webinar on environmental sustainability, attracting over a record number of attendees for one of their events which showed strong regional Member interest in this subject.  Nadine Robinson, Technical Adviser on Environmental Sustainability shares her learnings from speaking at this event.

In preparation for presenting at this webinar I spent time reading the annual and sustainability reports, investor presentations and websites of a cross-section of IMCA members operating in Brazil, and surfaced multiple good practices on environment and decarbonisation. These illustrate how our Members are tackling these challenges through practical actions.   A general theme also emerged in the reporting of IMCA Members working in partnership with their clients on the energy transition (e.g. in Helix Energy Solutions’ reporting referred to its work with its clients to reduce their carbon footprint).

Other highlights include:

• DOF’s decision Intelligent Efficiency project with Kongsberg and others, providing decision support systems on two vessels to aid in reducing fuel consumption;
• Fugro’s studies on the use of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen and methanol for new and existing vessels; and its introduction of the first fully electric ROV;
• Grupo CBO’s waste segregation and recycling activities;
• Heerema Marine Contractors’ shorepower project to electrify their vessels moored in port;
• Subsea 7’s programme to use digital fuel readings on the vessels it owns; and development of the world’s largest vibratory hammer to reduce noise;
• Saipem’s installation of the world’s first floating wind farm; and development of tool for estimating greenhouse gas emissions for EPCI projects;
• Sapura Energy’s work converting rigs to reefs; and
• TechnipFMC’s setting of an interim decarbonisation target of ’50 by 30’ target (i.e. to achieve a 50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030);

During the webinar, Oceaneering also shared examples of how remote operations can accrue environmental benefits. CBO also shared some of its efforts on environmental sustainability. TechnipFMC, in its reporting, has also pointed out that to achieve the energy transition at scale requires going offshore and in deepwater. This affords an opportunity for our industry. And Solstad’s report notes that they “started to collect emissions data before it was cool” highlighting the importance of reporting and transparency.

The above gives a snapshot of some of the practical steps IMCA Members have taken. Do you have good practices to share on environmental sustainability? Why not share them through our Environmental Sustainability Bulletins. Similarly, would you like to know more about the above initiatives or other environmental and decarbonisation topics. If so, please send your suggestions through to [email protected]. Let’s disseminate our good practices on environmental sustainability more widely.

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