Green Marine Participants Boost Performance
Green Marine, a North American environmental certification program, has unveiled its participants’ environmental performance results for the year 2015, citing its members’ excellence and leadership.
Green Marine participants are shipowners, port authorities, Seaway corporations, terminal owners and shipyard operators. The voluntary environmental program has 12 performance indicators that address environmental issues such as air pollution emissions, greenhouse gases, aquatic invasive species, waste management and community impacts.
To assure the program’s rigor and transparency, participants must undergo an external verification every two years, and each participant’s individual results are published annually.
Green Marine’s participants maintained an overall average of 3.2 on a 1-to-5 scale, with Level 1 indicating monitoring of regulations and Level 5 reflecting excellence and leadership.
"Improving from an average of 2 in 2008 to 3.2 in 2015 is no small feat," says David Bolduc, Green Marine’s executive director, explaining that the program has significantly augmented its criteria every year. "Ports and terminals, for instance, have a new performance indicator this year: waste management."
Green Marine has tripled the number of its participants since its inception in 2007. There are currently 103 participants compared to 34 when the program started nine years ago.
"This increase demonstrates that an increasing portion of the marine industry is committed to pursuing sustainable development through Green Marine," says Paul Gourdeau, who chairs Green Marine’s Board of Directors and is the president of Federal Marine Terminals.
Green Marine achieved a milestone in February by welcoming its 100th participant: Port Canaveral in Florida. "This continued expansion is proof that a voluntary certification program meets a need,” notes Bolduc, “and that we are making progress in the mission that we have set to advance North America’s marine industry environmental excellence."
The Northwest Seaport Alliance is the program’s latest participant, signing up on May 2.
“Before forming The Northwest Seaport Alliance, the ports of Seattle and Tacoma worked closely together on environmental initiatives—along with our Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy partner, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority,” said Jason Jordan, director of the alliance’s environmental and planning team. “Becoming a member of Green Marine enhances our ability to exchange information about environmental programs and successes with an even larger marine community.”
The certification program aligns with the goals of the clean air strategy to reduce port-related emissions in the Georgia Basin Puget Sound air shed, he said.