Esse Quam Videri Swire
Reputation is a very fragile thing. Really, it doesn’t matter what you claim your company to be, what you are will be revealed regardless.
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of The China Navigation Company Ltd, Swire Shipping is dedicated to facilitating and growing the trade in the regions we operate in and to providing shipping solutions with the highest customer service standards. We recognize that our customers are the heart of our business and strive to work in partnership with our customers to achieve mutual success.
What We Value
Performance – We are committed to achieving the highest standards in every task we perform. Our corporate motto “Esse Quam Videri” translates as “to be, and not to seem to be”. In other words we do what we say we will do.
Responsibility – We recognise the importance of behaving in a responsible, ethical manner in line with community expectations. We value the environment we work in and strive to minimise the impact our activities have on it.
Swire’s Environment Policy
Protection of the environment is an integral part of Swire Shipping’s business philosophy and the company will aim to ensure that its business practices minimise, or eliminate where possible, detrimental effects on the environment.Swire Shipping’s staff will carry out their work giving environmental concerns the highest priority possible and. by doing so, aspire to being “best in class” concerning all related environmental matters.
To achieve these aims the company will seek to optimise its operations by using the latest technology and best practice to achieve operational efficiency in reducing the company’s effect on the environment. endquote
So why is the Queensland Government now locked in a battle to force Swire to pay for the clean-up of an oil spill from one of its ships?
On March 11th 2009, a cargo ship called the Pacific Adventurer, owned by Swire Shipping, charged on through a cyclone off the coast of Brisbane, Queensland, on its way to Newcastle. The ship was rolled and dropped more than 30 containers of Amonium Nitrate into a protected marine zone. As the containers dropped off the side of the ship, they struck the hull, tearing a couple of holes, sending more than 270,000 litres of oil onto the shores of previously pristine coastline from Moreton Island through to Sunshine Beach. A full 60km long oil spill, that took months to clean up.
It was Queensland’s worst marine environmental disaster, and it brought the local fishing industry to its knees.
Aside from the oil, the containers remain in the middle of prime trawling grounds for prawns and fish. Commercial fishing fleets are now excluded from a wide area, for fears of snagging nets and a contaminated catch. It is almost certain that they are leaking Amonium Nitrate into the waters of the marine park and surrounding areas, and the full impact of this may take years to be seen.
Swire originally claimed a loss of only 30,000 litres of oil, but this was soon proved to be more than 270,000 litres. Swire originally said it would pay for the clean up too.
Alas, we misheard. Swire now states that from the beginning it only ever promised to meet its legal obligations for the clean-up. According to Port World, Swire says “the company has not stated it would cover all costs. All costs are still unknown and there is a limit to the amount of claims the company and its insurers can accept.”
So too is there a limit to the environmental damage that a community can accept. This simply isn’t good enough Swire.
Part of the distrust that consumers generally have about large corporations worldwide comes down to this tap dancing around responsibility. Companies seem to only fess up to or compensate for what they are legally required to do, not beyond that, regardless of however weak or inadequate the law. The problem here for Swire though, is that it claims a commitment to behaving in a responsible, ethical manner in line with community expectations.
Ahoy Swire! The community’s expectations are nothing short of full compensation to the State of Queensland for the clean-up, the environmental damage, and the losses to the fishing industry.
Perhaps Swire management should reread its corporate motto “to be, and not to seem to be”. Doing whatever damage you can get away with, paying only what you are “legally required” to, goes against the very values you claim to hold dear. Specifically, stop stating a commitment to environmental best practice and meeting community expectations when you simply don’t.
This ultimately does more damage to the company than the environmental destruction itself. And now, with the Queensland government looking at putting a levy on all shipping into our waters to pay for Swire’s intransigence, while this may tick off a few of its competitors, it is the very community devastated by this incident that will ultimately pay with a higher cost of goods.
Ms Premier, I have a solution for you. Ban Swire Shipping from Australian waters. It should not be too difficult to get the support of all state and federal governments – given that Swire has revealed how it will behave in the event of future similar incidents elsewhere.
In fact, I would suggest that all countries should ban Swire from its waters, and all responsible companies should remove Swire as a supplier, until it has made full restitution to the Queensland government and fishing industry. Clearly, no other threatened penalty has had the desired effect. There are other shipping companies one can use…
Are you with me on this? Write to your government wherever you are, and demand a ban on Swire. If you work for a company that uses Swire services, write to them to let them know you will cancel their contract unless they step up to shoulder the values they claim to own, and do the right thing. Let’s see how quickly we can get this resolved.
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Category: Reputation Management, Sin & Spin
