TOKYO – Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President: Kunio Suzuki) today announced that the company has gained approval to include cruise service operated by its affiliate Mitsui O.S.K. Passenger Line,Ltd.(MOPAS) (headquarters: Tokyo; President: Kentaro Hino), under MOL’s ISO14001 certification.
This year, MOL was certified for the International Standard Organization’s ISO 14001 by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the Norwegian Ship Classification Society, under accreditation by Read Voor Accrediate (RvA), the Dutch council for accreditation. The certification covers MOL’s onsite and head office activities associated with multimodal, logistics and ocean shipping services. As of September 19, the certification has been extended to cruise services by the Nippon Maru.
MOL has taken an aggressive approach to environmental protection, developing its own environmental management system called MOL EMS 21, which has now been ISO 14001 certified. As the cruise ship industry directly affects the ocean environment, MOL included cruise service by MOPAS as a part of MOL EMS 21 and asked DNV to incorporate cruise services into MOL’s certified range of services.
MOPAS has an excellent reputation for its approaches to environmental and sanitation issues as the MOPAS-operated cruise ship Nippon Maru earned the highest rating of any Japanese cruise ship for four consecutive years from U.S. Public Health Service inspections. In addition, the ship earned top rankings during inspections by Canadian government agencies in July 2003.
Together with MOL, MOPAS will continue efforts not only to maintain the high level of sanitation and customer service but also to enhance environmental protection through MOL EMS 21.
For further information, please contact:
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.
Keiichi Tanosaki,
General Manager, Environment and Technology Group
Technical Division
Tel: 81 3 3587 6273
Fax: 81 3 3587 7798
Email: redmo@mail.mol.co.jp