EBEN 2020

AMBASSADORS CLUB OF EBEN BOOKLET 2020 13 ELVICTOR S.P.A.C.E. Environmental impacts in Covid-19 times The global disruption caused by the COVID-19 has brought about several effects on the environment and climate. Due to movement restriction and a significant slowdown of social and economic activities, air quality has improved in many cities with a reduction in water pollution in different parts of the world. Besides, increased use of PPE (e.g., face mask, hand gloves etc.), their haphazard disposal, and generation of a huge amount of hospital waste has negative impacts on the environment. Directly or indirectly, the pandemic is affecting human life and the global economy, which is ultimately affecting the environment and climate. It reminds us how we have neglected the environmental components and enforced human induced climate change. In summary table on the right indicates the environmental effects. Elvictor Group Crew Management & Training is fully committed to environmentally sound practices and use of natural resources in sustainable manner. The promotion of routines that contribute to the protection of the environment has been developed through our people both ashore and onboard vessels. Under the difficult circumstances of our times due to the corona virus pandemic, our activities have been substantially shrunk. However, as we strongly believe that the major environmental asset is the human element, we have concentrated in triggering the environmental sensitivity of our people in their interface with the environment. We have been supporting and implementing seminars and webinars throughout the lockdown period on the newly prevailed regulations for the consumption of low sulfur fuels onboard ships. The programmes include (but not limited to) the following; • Garbage handling • Food Waste Management • MARPOL Annexes familiarisation (with practical examples) • Importance on water resources management Though distant working was introduced and embraced by our staff, for those coming to the office, we implemented the use of pool cars (strictly in compliance with local health requirements and regulations) in our effort to reduce our CO 2 footprint and so contribute to a cleaner planet. Positive environmental effects Negative environmental effects Reduction of air pollution and GHGs emission As industries, transportation and companies have closed down, it has brought a sudden significant drop of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. Increase of biomedical waste generation Since the outbreak of COVID-19, medical waste generation is increased globally, which is a major threat to public health and environment. R eduction of water pollution During the lockdown period, the major industrial sources of pollution have shrunk or completely stopped. Safety equipment use and haphazard disposal To protect from the vi ral infection, presently peoples are using face mask, hand gloves and other safety equipment, which increase the amount of healthcare waste. Reduction of noise pollution Noise pollution is the elevated levels of sound, generated from different human activities (e.g., machines, vehicles, construction work), which may lead to adverse effects in human and other living organisms Increase of sol id waste generation, and reduction of recycling Due to the pandemic, quarantine policies established have led to an increase in the demand of online shopping for home delivery, which ultimately increase the amount of household wastes from shipped package materials. Batteries recycling, reduced amount of print paper to minimum, open windows policy for reducing the use of air conditioning and limits in use of internal lighting in the working space are a number only of activities with enhanced implementation towards our company social responsibility commitment.