Progress Report 2010: Green Marine members continue to rise above regulatory obligations
Chicago, IL (May 25, 2011) – An environmental report card from Green Marine on the Canadian and U.S. marine industry has revealed significant improvement, with the greatest progress made by shipowners reducing their carbon and SOx emissions and ports providing environmental leadership to their tenants.
Green Marine, a program designed to benchmark and strengthen the marine industry’s environmental performance, unveiled its annual report and its members’ individual results for 2010 during the certification ceremony held in Chicago during the 4th annual GreenTech 2011 environmental conference on green technologies and innovation in marine transportation. During the ceremony, some fifty members received their certification for 2010 testifying to their adherence to the environmental program and commitment to continuous improvement.
Green Marine members include major shipowning companies, ports, terminals and shipyards based in the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence region and on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Companies evaluate their performance on a scale of levels one-to-five to measure their achievements in carrying out various actions required under the program such as introducing best practices, meeting reduction targets or introducing new technologies to improve their record in seven priority environmental areas.
2010 Results : steady improvement year-over-year since 2008
Green Marine member companies continued to raise the bar with the latest results showing a global score of 2.9 in 2010, up from 2.5 in 2009. The global score in 2008, the first year of reporting, was 2.0. Individual company results are publically available at www.green-marine.org.
Although Green Marine is a voluntary program, the results reported by participating companies are subject to a rigorous external verification process every two years. This independent audit process, performed by Houston, TX headquartered Lloyds Register Quality Assurance, ensures the credibility of the results reported for each participant.
»The results attained by participants continued on an upward trend with improved results in 2010 for virtually all issues covered by the environmental program, » said Collister Johnson, one of Green Marine’s three co-chairs and Administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. »This third year of evaluation provides strong evidence of the environmental program’s effectiveness in motivating a large segment of the maritime industry to undertake concrete action to protect the environment. »
The year 2010 also marked the broadening of Green Marine’s territory and mandate. Green Marine significantly strengthened its position as the maritime industry’s most important environmental initiative in North America by expanding the program beyond the St. Lawrence – Great Lakes region to include marine transportation companies operating or based anywhere in Canada or the United States.
“Twelve new participants from various regions – ranging from Canada’s West Coast, to the Maritimes, to the U.S. East Coast, to the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes basin – have recently joined the Green Marine program bringing the total number of participating companies to 53,” stated David Bolduc, Executive Director of the program. »The arrival of new members demonstrates the relevance and seriousness of Green Marine environmental program and its concrete impact on the maritime industry. »
Green Marine has also widened its mandate to reach new members. Its performance indicators were adapted to facilitate the evaluation of international fleets, which enabled New York-headquartered TBS International to enter the program. 2010 was also the first year in which shipyards were evaluated under the program’s criteria with Vancouver-based Seaspan Marine Corporation entering its ship repair and shipbuilding facilities, located in Vancouver and Victoria, as well as their tug-barge operation in its evaluation process.
2010 marked another significant milestone for Green Marine with the Chicago-based Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative adopting a resolution to support the Green Marine initiative. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is a bi-national collaboration of Canadian and U.S. mayors from cities around the Great Lakes and St Lawrence region dedicated to the protection and restoration of the waterways. »The expansion of membership, in terms of new participants and a growing number of partners and supporters, is a testament to the credibility of the Green Marine environmental program and bodes well for building an even stronger coast-to-coast, bi-national program to support the marine industry on the road to sustainable development », said Ray Johnston, Chair of the Green Marine’s Board of Directors. Green Marine now has a total of 120 members in all categories.