Green Plus is currently awarded to new vessels that make significant investment in design solutions, onboard equipment and operational procedures which contribute to an improvement in environmental performance beyond the minimum levels required by regulation.

The new update will include, for the first time, specific reference to dispersion of cargo dusts from solid bulk cargo storage, spillage and leakages of substances from weather decks, hot water discharge, dirty water from weather decks, noise, visual impact and light pollution assessment and mitigation.

RINA say that that importance of monitoring the impact of ships mainly operated at fixed offshore locations has also been recognised in the update to Green Plus.

This is included by way of a new environmental risk assessment and through the periodic monitoring of air and seawater quality – which includes terrestrial and marine flora monitoring.

The new Green Plus rules were approved by RINA’s technical committee at its June meeting this week.