Sustainability Report

It is the responsibility of the board of directors of the Group to produce the ForSea AB Sustainability Report. The following report has been drawn up in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Swedish ÅRL (Annual Reports Act).

Significant sustainability considerations

ForSea operates a shipping business managing almost 50,000 ferry departures per annum in some of Northern Europe’s busiest shipping waters. We do this with the help of approximately 750 employees and a sustainability scheme focussed on the following areas:

The effect of ferry traffic on the environment, e.g. energy consumption, emissions, sourcing, on-board sales/consumption and the handling of waste and chemicals.
Employee and passenger safety with comprehensive requirements from legislation and directives at both a national level and those set by the EU and the UN agency IMO.
Work environment for our employees. We have a zero accident in the workplace policy. ForSea aims to provide jobs in which its employees can flourish and in which they feel there is room for them to develop professionally.
Human rights, with a focus on equal treatment and promoting equal rights and opportunities in the workplace regardless of sex, age, ethnicity, religion or other beliefs.
Maintaining the link between the Helsingborg and Helsingør regions and the surrounding areas, meaning we have a wide-reaching social responsibility for development in these regions.
Business ethics, with preventive measures against corruption, fraud and bribery at the forefront.

Practical sustainability focuses on five different areas: Safety, Employees, Reduced environmental impact, Sustainable consumption and Social responsibility, which are covered by the Sustainability Report.

Code of Conduct – a reference point

ForSea has a Code of Conduct covering business ethics issues, forms the basis for company policies and routines and also acts as a reference point in the day-to-day running of the business. In addition to ethical principles, it also contains the guidelines regarding equal treatment, values and leadership principles.

The Code makes it clear that business ethics is not just a matter of not committing criminal offences, but also includes information on how we should behave with one another and with our environment, and also how we can fulfil stakeholders’ requirements and expectations. At this point we would like to point out that the guidelines are applicable to everyone – directors, managers and employees – no matter where in the world they are. We would like all of our partners to participate in our Code or maybe even introduce similar guidelines into their businesses.

Guiding objectives

The overall aim – as included in our vision and business model – is to run a sustainable company with the smallest possible environmental impact. We have established objectives and indicators for many of our key sustainability areas which will help us reach this overall aim, e.g. within the areas of safety, emissions, energy consumption and passenger satisfaction. We also often have targets for policies regarding sustainable development. These targets are assessed on a yearly basis and detailed in the sustainability report.

In autumn 2018, we made the decision to link our sustainability work to the UN’s global Sustainable Development Goals. Of the 17 goals, seven have been selected as being definitive for ForSea as a company and which cover the areas in which we can contribute the most. These global goals are to become part of our strategic agenda and, long-term, to be fully integrated into our sustainability work. The goals which were selected are as follows: 3: Good health and well-being, 9: Sustainable industry, innovation and infrastructure, 10: Reduced inequalities, 11: Sustainable cities and communities, 12: Responsible consumption and production, 13: Climate action and 14: Life below water.

Monitoring of these goals will commence in 2019.

Supporting standards

ForSea achieved environmental certification according to ISO 14001:2015 in 2016. A good management system is one of the most important tools as it provides a systematic approach to working and forms a basis for continuous improvement. As part of working towards improved energy efficiency, the decision was made in 2018 to certify the company according to the energy management systems standard ISO 50001:2011. The energy management systems standard facilitates monitoring and improvement tasks, in turn contributing to even better energy performance. Since 2018, all of our ferries have been verified in accordance with the Clean Shipping Index (CSI) – an international index ranking vehicles and shipping companies according to their environmental impact. Our battery-powered ferries Aurora and Tycho Brahe both achieved the highest ranking of CSI 5.

Our safety system is based on the SMS manual as prescribed by international legislation (ISM Code). The ISM Code is considered as the equivalent to quality standard ISO 9001 for the shipping industry and sets out how we should identify, document and systematise all routines in the safety management system. In line with the ISM Code, ForSea has specified a so-called Designated Person (DP) who is responsible for ensuring that we comply with all rules and directives regarding safety and who works independently of the company management and directors.

Conformity – new rules and legal requirements

Over the last year, we have concentrated heavily on achieving the requirements new laws and regulations aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the shipping industry, e.g. IMO DCS regarding the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of fuel consumption/carbon dioxide emissions, the Ballast Water Convention (rules for handling ballast water), the IHM (regulations regarding the inventory of hazardous materials/ship recycling) and the Clean Shipping Index.

Whistleblower system

The whistleblower system is available for employees to communicate confidentially any suspicions they might have of irregularities to either a manager or to the person responsible for the whistleblower system. Messages to the whistleblower system can either be sent personally or anonymously. The service helps to minimise risk – and to maintain trust in ForSea – by discovering and rectifying possible irregularities in good time.

Work in practice

Sustainability and safety tasks are closely related. They are coordinated by the Department for Health, Safety and the Environment as the department head sits on the senior management team. Within ForSea, there are seven environmental coordinators each responsible for their own department. They carry out agreed measures and are responsible for monitoring and developing the sustainability tasks carried out in their respective departments.

Some sustainability issues are handled by groups spanning multiple departments, e.g. the ECO driving group, the Energy savings group and the Chemical council. ForSea has nine internal auditors who carry out environmental audits according to the ISO standards and safety checks according to the SMS manual twice a year. In addition, a yearly environmental audit is carried out in accordance with the ISO 14001:2015 framework and a number of external safety checks are made in accordance with the requirements of the ISM Code. The results from all of the audits are then shared with the sustainability and safety manager and are used as the basis for subsequent improvement work. Towards the end of 2018, ForSea started to use Position Green as part of our sustainable development. Position Green is a digital tool which streamlines the collection, analysis, visualisation and auditing of our sustainability data.

How we share our findings

Our sustainability work is presented in our combined yearly financial statement/sustainability report. It can be found on the ForSea website; alternatively, an abridged printed version is also available. Our sustainability work is also published continuously whenever any meetings, partnership projects, events or other types of contact with stakeholders take place.