Green Award

What it is

Green Award's own organisation page, opened in a real browser on 2026-09-02, states, verbatim: "Green Award is a voluntary quality assessment certification program that inspects and certifies ships". The word "voluntary" in that sentence is the scheme owner's own wording, not a characterisation added here.

Its home page describes the scheme, verbatim: "A certification and incentive program for shipping. Together we contribute globally to sustainable waterborne transport."

The organisation page's "Green Award in brief" block carries, verbatim: "Established in 1994", "Non-profit, independent, international", "Quality mark for high performing vessels", "Own in-house developed requirements", "Governed by key industry representatives" and "Ocean and River".

The procedure has two parts. Green Award's own certification pages state, verbatim: "Green Award carries out Office Audit of the ship management company to observe the company's management system and its operational policies and procedures, along with their involvement with the office personnel" and "A Ship Survey follows: first the Initial Review which is a desktop documentation review, second a survey onboard ship".

The same pages set out the effort, verbatim: the office audit "takes place only for the 1st ship but renewed every 3 years; performed in 2 days by 2 auditors", the ship survey "takes place in 1 day by 1 surveyor", and after certification "hereafter, the ship is surveyed annually".

Two documents are issued, not one. The same pages state, verbatim: "A separate certificate is issued for ship and office" and "Both office and ship certificates are valid for 3 years".

The requirements are structured in three parts, verbatim: "Basic requirements (statutory elements related to ISM, MARPOL, SOLAS)", "Ranking requirements (weighted items, minimum % to be attained)" and "Visual inspections (seaworthiness, good housekeeping) – SHIP ONLY". The requirement documents linked from that page carry their own version block: the oil tanker set, opened on 2026-09-02, is headed "Annex 3a: Green Award Requirements (Oil tanker)", "Version 2025", "Effective as of 1 October 2025". Revisions run per vessel type (that set at 1.1, the chemical tanker set at 2.0). The tariff document published alongside them is Tariffs 2026.

Separate requirement sets are published per vessel type: oil tankers, chemical tankers, bulk carriers (with general cargo carriers and cement carriers), LNG carriers, container carriers, LPG carriers, offshore vessels and Ro-Ro cargo ships.

Scale, verbatim from the organisation page: "Over 1500 ships certified (inland and sea) and over 200 incentive providers which include ports and maritime service providers participate" and "30+ countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Australasia and South and North Americas participate".

Who owns it

Green Award is run from Rotterdam (Westerkade 7b, 3016 CL). Its own organisation page describes the scheme, verbatim, as "Non-profit, independent, international" and "Governed by key industry representatives".

The organisation page names three bodies: the Green Award Board, the Board of Experts and the Board of Appeal.

Who assesses it

Green Award carries out both parts of the assessment itself — the office audit of the ship management company and the survey onboard the ship — using its own in-house developed requirements, in the wording of its organisation page: "Own in-house developed requirements".

Who asks for it

Voluntary. Participation is voluntary in the scheme owner's own wording. The verified pull is an incentive mechanism rather than a purchasing condition: over 200 ports, shipping organizations and maritime suppliers publish discounts and other benefits for certified ships in Green Award's own register of incentive providers.

The demand side is a reward mechanism. Green Award's own incentive-providers page states, verbatim: "Green Award incentive providers are ports, shipping organizations and maritime service/products suppliers that want to support and enhance the environmental and safety performance of ships and to promote the highest quality standards." and "They offer various financial and non-financial incentives to Green Award certified ships."

The incentives listed on that page are, verbatim: "discount on the port dues", "discount on service(s)", "discount on product(s)", "special extra service/product" and "promotion". Each provider, in Green Award's own words, "can define the scope of incentive" and "is free to launch and stop the incentive".

Green Award publishes the providers and their benefits by name in its own register, read on 2026-09-02. Its rows include, verbatim, "Administração do Porto de Lisboa" offering "5% reduction on Tariff for Port Use (TUP)", "Administração do Porto de Setúbal" offering "3% reduction on the Port Use Due", and "Administração do Porto de Sines SA" offering "5% reduction for all Green Award certified ships". Each row also records which vessel types the benefit applies to.

Validity

Office and ship certificates are valid for 3 years; after certification the ship is surveyed annually.