Heading for change - Alandia

In this podcast, we are joined by Getter Kaevandes, a marine surveyor with a story to tell.  As highlighted by BIMCO’s 2021 seafarer workforce report, women represent less than 2% of the global seafarer workforce, and as a former deck officer, Getter is in this minority bracket. But why is the gender imbalance so huge, even in today’s modern age?  In this podcast, we hear about some of the experiences that push women to leave seagoing positions, and in some cases, deters them from having a career at sea at all. It brings into the spotlight how big of an issue harassment at sea is, and how present it remains. We are very grateful to Getter for sharing with us and hope that it will help provoke some action toward making the shipboard environment a safer and better place for women to work.  

This month we focus on improving the safety of mooring operations; one of the most routine and dangerous tasks for those both onboard the ship and quayside.To gain insight from two different perspectives, we discuss the topic with a marine surveyor and a rope manufacturer, giving a broader view of where we are at present and where we are heading in the future. Almos Boldizsar is a former deck officer with plenty of first-hand mooring experience, who has come ashore into the role of Marine Surveyor at Van Ameyde Marine in Rotterdam, where he is now involved in condition surveys and investigates various mooring-related incidents. He is passionate about safety awareness and about creating open human connections.Veronika Aspelund has 18 years of experience in shipping, beginning her journey at Norwegian ropes manufacturer Timm, where she gained industrial-related skills ranging from sales, marketing, operations, and business development. When Wilhelmsen acquired Timm in 2015, she was put in charge of managing the mooring ropes product portfolio, and now in her present role as Ropes Business Director for Wilhelmsen Ships Service, Veronika is instrumental in the ongoing development of safer and sustainable rope solutions. Between them, Almos and Veronika give us plenty of useful information about rope selection and maintenance, research and design developments, and upcoming regulatory changes. Have a listen! 

In this episode, we celebrate World Maritime Day by interviewing Svetlana Ormane. Svetlana works as a Claims Handler at Marine Underwriting Services in Riga. She has seagoing experience as an Officer and an education in Maritime Management from Chalmers University. Svetlana is interested in different cultures and can speak 6 languages!  In this podcast Svetlana talks openly about some of her experiences and about the benefits of working in the Maritime Industry, promoting this career choice. Keep listening for an interesting discussion.  

For this month’s theme of communication and inclusion, we have Cajsa Jersler-Fransson joining our podcast! Cajsa is a qualified master mariner who now works on diversity and inclusion projects for the Swedish Maritime Administration, such as REDO 2 which addresses social sustainability at sea.The shipping community is relatively small but exceptionally widespread, and so we talk about the power of networking and social media to enable further reach, and about how storytelling is a hugely impactful method for communicating a message. When it comes to more localised communications, such as those between crew members on board, we discuss how language barriers affect both crew inclusivity and vessel safety. We also ask Cajsa for her point of view on bridging the gap between the ship and the shore. Listen to this podcast for an interesting and thought-provoking discussion!

This month our focus is on steel cargo. The maritime industry changes rapidly and this means that shipowners need to stay updated and find creative solutions to keep up.  To get some insight on how steel cargo looks from a shipowner’s point of view, we talked with Laura Langh-Lagerlöf. Laura, with her commercial background, is the Managing Director of both Langh Ship and Langh Tech. Langh ship is a family-owned company that transports steel, bulk, and container cargoes, and Langh Tech is a company that designs and produces scrubbers and ballast water treatment units. These companies have adopted innovative thinking and have developed a number of patented solutions for the transportation of steel products. Keep listening to hear about some fresh thinking within shipping.   Main take aways from the podcast:  The lifestyle of running a family company  Steel cargo – risks, challenges & solutions  How to find your niche  Changes within the maritime industry  How to maintain good communications between ship and shore – Is WhatsApp the latest solution?  

We want to spread knowledge about what trauma is and how we can deal with it in the best way. Right now, we are working on a project with trauma expert Rachel Glynn-Williams, a consultant clinical psychologist and clinical director at Seaways Psychology Services.  Keep listening to learn from her expert insights.This is a short version of  the episode Trauma at sea, for the original version see episode 16.

Welcome to this month’s podcast episode, which explores and highlights the role of design in maintenance. With many new sustainable solutions and designs being implemented for vessels, the need to adapt maintenance practices is inevitable. We ask what is reasonable to expect from modern ship design, how design affects maintenance, and how maintenance knowledge will keep-up with evolving design. Our expert guest for this podcast is Jan-Erik Räsänen, Chief Technical Officer at Foreship, where he oversees all things related to the technical aspects of design with a focus on reducing the energy consumption of ships.  Listen-in to hear Jan-Erik’s perspective on this important topic! 

Welcome to this podcast episode, where we discuss ECDIS safety and user interaction. With the transitional period for the mandatory implementation of ECDIS behind us, we want to highlight its benefits, but also pay due regard to the pitfalls and user errors that commonly lead to accidents and near-misses. For example, there have been numerous instances of groundings due to mistakes and misunderstandings relating to the input of the safety depth and safety contour. For safe use of ECDIS it is important to consider standardisation and familiarisation, the need for continual training, the developments underway, and the trust that is placed in this heavily relied on aid to navigation. Our podcast guest for this episode is Rob Gale, who is a former deck officer and has worked as a senior instructor for IMO approved ECDIS courses. Rob has also participated at the IMO in the working group for ECDIS standardisation. Listen-in to gain some useful insights from Rob’s expert knowledge!   

 Welcome to this podcast episode, where we want to take a different approach to understanding the challenges of decarbonisation in the maritime industry.This episode's guest is Daniel Eriksson, who spent time at sea as a second engineer before moving to Climeon, a company which focuses on converting excess unused heat to electricity. He later worked for Foreship as project manager focusing on energy efficiency projects and design.We want to know about how urgency effects decision making, to understand what we are realistically aiming for, and how to avoid a situation where our efforts to reduce emissions lead to the creation of more.  Keep listening for a thought-provoking discussion which presents some proactive ideas about how we can work toward solving some of the challenges of decarbonisation.      

Welcome to this podcast episode, where we explore the cyber security landscape of today.We are joined in this episode by Kim Halavakoski, a professional in the cyber security field who has been in the position of CSO at Deductive Labs. As part of a new venture for Kim, Decutive Labs has joined Sofecta and transitioned into a new company – Sofecta Labs – where Kim will undertake his new role as Director of Cyber Security.We want to know more about the current cyber security status of the maritime industry and what cyber security threats we need to be aware of. Keep listening for a fascinating discussion on the development of cyber security solutions.

Ice navigation is both interesting and challenging, requiring a specific set of skills and specialist knowledge. We want to understand more about current best practices for winter and ice navigation, how sustainability fits in, and what skills and training future ice navigators need.  To help answer these questions, we have the great pleasure of hosting Tommy Berg. Aside from being an active ice breaker captain, he is also one of the few true global experts in this field. Having started his career in Finnish waters, Tommy has since climbed to a level where he has commanded DP equipped multi-purpose ice breakers during demanding Arctic explorations. Furthermore, he has spent time as an ice advisor in Canada and is also a co-author of Witherbys’ 2019 Ice Navigation and Seamanship Handbook, a 440-page publication covering every aspect of safe navigation in ice. Listen to this podcast episode for some valuable insights derived from a wealth of real-life experience in breaking ice.  

The challenge of decarbonising the shipping industry before 2050 is a topic which is in the spotlight around the world. The demand to tackle global warming is not only publicly supported but is also enforced by customers who want more sustainable options. This means that the adoption of environmentally friendly solutions is necessary for companies to remain competitive. We want to know more about how shipping companies are working with sustainable solutions to go beyond the near-sighted goal of simply creating marketing attention, to instead make a real difference to the future of the industry. We invited Jussi Mälkiä as the founder and CEO of Meriaura, a shipping company renowned for their innovative and sustainable solutions, to explain his perspective. Listen to our podcast to hear more about a company who are striving to create change.  

We want to spread knowledge about what trauma is and how we can deal with it in the best way. Right now, we are working on a project with trauma expert Rachel Glynn-Williams, a consultant clinical psychologist and clinical director at Recall Recover Limited.  Keep listening to learn from her expert insights. 

Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Heading for Change podcast. In this episode, we examine how  maritime students prepare for life at sea. In addition to  technical knowledge, do they learn important facts regarding how they can  contribute to safe and successful  shipping operations ? Johanna talked to two maritime students – John Strandvall, soon to be examined Master Mariner and  marine engineer Linnea Gustafsson, who finished her education 4 years ago. Both have been educated on the Aland Islands at Alandica Shipping Academy. Tune in for an interesting discussion!

In this episode, we discuss the connection between sustainability, digitalisation, and the maritime industry. What unique challenges is the industry facing when it comes to sustainability and digitalisation? How does the industry implement changes necessary for long term sustainability, profitability, and highly functional digital solutions? How does maritime safety fit into this equation? What are some of the new solutions and tools within the industry? Erle Kristin Wagle has gathered insights of the responsibilities related to performance monitoring and sustainability from a front row seat. She recently joined one of the leading global digital solution providers to further develop the digital oceans business. Stay tuned for some truly insightful discussions! 

 At the moment, the traditionally male-dominated maritime industry is moving into a new, more diverse era. Like other industries, the maritime industry has only benefited from this transition towards a more heterogeneous workforce, where all participants have equal opportunities and everyone’s contribution is weighed in and utilized. To get an insider’s view on things, we invited Malin Andersson to join us. Malin has worked at sea as a captain, an occupation which still continues to be male-dominated. We feel Malin Andersson is a good role model, since she chooses not to see herself as a female captain, but simply as a captain who cares for her crew and who stands up for fairness and takes action when someone is treated wrongly. Tune in when we broadcast one of our favourite conversation from 2020 a second time!

Today, we have a great podcast expert here with us. We welcome Lena Göthberg who launched the Shipping Podcast, in 2015. Since then, her maritime podcast has gained a steadily growing audience.Stay with us to hear about the lessons she has learned listening to voices from the maritime industry during her podcasting years.  

Do you know how the vessel market works and how vessel values are determined? We contacted Annika Bartels and her colleague Edward Royle at Galbraith’s to tell us how they worked and and the extensive research part of it. We were also curious to know how ship brokers work with sustainability and where they see their major impact.  

Welcome podcast listeners! This is a special episode concentrating on safety knowledge, near misses, transparency, and digitalisation. Our guests today are Daniel Pantzarfelt, Safety and Traffic Manager from Destination Gotland and Thomas Friis, Development Manager from VG-Shipping. Both are master mariners with seagoing backgrounds, as well as shore-based roles within safety and security management.What kind of tools are useful and what tools, which are not available today, are needed for the shipping industry? Information sharing and transparency are an inherent part of a safety organisation and work. To read more about our exiting project to create a useful safety tool you can click here

 Welcome podcast listeners! This is a special episode of an old recording before this podcast series existed. I interviewed Doctor Claire Pekcan, the Director of Safe Marine that specialise in safety culture within the marine industry. Claire has also been involved in research projects that investigate fatigue at sea. We think this theme is still very much valid, especially under current circumstances. Please join us for a special episode of heading for change.