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Oil combat boost through cooperation – a Commitment completed

“We are convinced that the oil combat readiness for the Baltic Sea has been improved. We are proud to have had the chance to participate in this work”, states Jussi Hytönen, the development director of Niemi Palvelut Oy – Niemi Services Ltd.
Niemi Services provided logistics for the Baltic Sea Action Summit in 2010. The representatives of the firm grew also interested in making a Commitment. The Commitment subject was not self-evident, though. By now the chosen Commitment has also garnered good cooperation with WWF, Volvo Auto – Volvo Cars and Wärtsilä, the latter having a previous Commitment in the field of clean and safe maritime activities.
BSAG unites the needs of the Baltic Sea with the help providers through Commitments for the Baltic Sea. A successful Commitment uses the core competence of the Commitment maker to improve the state of the Sea. Oil spill fighting was finally selected as the Niemi Services Commitment theme. The voluntary troops organized by the WWF needed help. Niemi was able to provide containers and their transportation for the work. The containers are ideal for storing and moving the oil combat equipment. This kind of help is most welcome to the WWF as they need to concentrate on coordinating the work during rehearsals and real action.
As mere containers would be a vehicle to get the equipment where needed as well as  stored when not in use, BSAG activated a couple of Baltic Sea minded firms to donate more tools and equipment to increase the capacity of the volunteers to act. Volvo Cars and Wärtsilä took part in complementing the Commitment by making it possible to use the containers as working space and shelter for the volunteers with their donations.
The actual Commitment by Wärtsilä deals with cleaning sulphur emissions from ships. “Providing the oil combat equipment is an opportunity to do a direct concrete act and we were happy to help. The most important thing is to minimize the risks beforehand but of course there has to be means to act if the worst scenario takes place,” says Britt-Mari Kullas-Nyman, General Manager of Environmental Services in Wärtsilä.
The last of the three containers mentioned in the Commitment in 2010 will be ready to use in the beginning of 2013. The containers prove that well targeted donations can result in remarkable improvements. The Baltic Sea traffic is heavy. In the Gulf of Finland alone the annual transport of approximately 150 million tonnes of oil is estimated to grow. The challenging narrow straits and channels increase the risk of accidents. Therefore BSAG considers using the model in the other coastal countries as well.
Niemi Palvelut
People involved in the Niemi Palvelut Commitment studied one of the oil busting containers in Helsinki in November 2012.
From top left Vanessa Ryan and Teemu Niinimäki from the WWF, Thomas Hallbäck (Volvo Cars), Martti Niska (BSAG), Esa niemi and Martti Kirsitie (Niemi Services), Heli Launiainen and Mikael Aminoff (BSAG) and Britt-Mari Kullas-Nyman (Wärtsilä).

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