CEO Update – May 2021

Welcome to the May edition of Making Waves. I am very pleased to report that this month we will be publishing the first edition of our Code of Practice on Environmental Sustainability which I recommend to all our Members.

The special Workgroup under the oversight of our Environmental Sustainability Committee has worked very enthusiastically on this document for the past year. I would like to thank all involved, in particular, IMCA’s Nadine Robinson for leading this endeavour. The Code is voluntary and sets the bar of expectations for our industry in managing key environmental and climate interactions associated with offshore marine construction. We recognise that our Members will be at different stages in their environmental sustainability journey, and the Code presents a practical approach to managing their journey.

Many thanks also go to our contractor Members who have contributed to the collection of our annual safety statistics for 2020. The data was collected online, and the results are now on our website in the normal format. Despite all the difficulties of 2020, it is good to see the incremental improvement in our industry’s performance continues. Please refer to the commentary by IMCA’s Nick Hough for further details. Talking of data collection, I would like to remind our members that your contribution to our project in collecting marine fuel data associated with DP ships is an important objective for us this year.

As I mentioned earlier in the year, we will be holding several committee elections in 2021 as part of the 3-year cycle which was extended in 2020 due to the pandemic. The Offshore Survey Committee election has now successfully taken place using an online process. Many thanks go to past members of the committee and the new members who are joining.

Our CPD programme, which has cut new ground in the diving division, has recently been expanded to the marine division. IMCA has collaborated with the Nautical Institute to develop a CPD app for DPOs.
The scheme is designed to help DPOs maintain their technical knowledge of the latest industry practices.

The app will provide users with the latest IMCA/industry guidance; DP safety bulletins; DP exercises and training drills; and assist in improving safety and operational efficiency offshore. I am optimistic that CPD will help bring a helpful improvement in the safety and risk management of DP operations in our industry. We have seen very encouraging results in the diving industry thanks to our Diving Supervisor CPD app and expect equally successful results with this scheme.

Finally, our COVID risk management work continues unabated. IMCA is part of the Vaccination Taskforce of multiple shipping organisations working with the ILO and WHO in lobbying governments on seafarer inoculation, as only governments can procure approved vaccines at the moment. Please refer to the latest information on our website.

I wish you all a safe, healthy, and happy month of May.

Allen Leatt

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