Green Marine releases its 2021 performance report
Green Marine, North America’s leading environmental certification program for the maritime industry, continues to steward greater sustainability for an increasing number of companies.
More than 170 ship owners, terminals, ports, shipyards, as well as the Canadian and U.S. Seaway corporations, now voluntarily assess their annual environmental performance beyond regulatory compliance and have it independently verified to be certified Green Marine participants as the program marks its 15th year.
The participants’ individual and overall efforts for 2021 were released at Green Marine’s annual conference, GreenTech 2022, in Montreal earlier today. The overall average rose to 3.0 on the program’s one-to-five scale, a slight improvement from the 2.9 achieved for 2020 reporting.
“We’re definitely satisfied with these results,” said David Bolduc, who has been named Green Marine’s President after serving as the organization’s Executive Director since its inception. “These results entailed more effort than in previous years, with Green Marine having broadened its participating membership, the program’s scope, as well as the criteria for some performance indicators to keep them sufficiently challenging at each level beyond regulations.”
Green Marine now has 14 performance indicators, compared to the six prioritized issues when it launched in 2007. “Ship owners, for example, now have to relate their ship recycling efforts, and ports will be required to report on community relations after a majority of them did so voluntarily for 2021,” Bolduc said. “In response to the steadily increasing number of shipyards joining the program, we’re also devising a program specifically for them, rather than have them use the same criteria as terminals.”
In 2021, participants overall made the largest improvement in terms of waste management, achieving a net increase of 36 levels within the program. “This might not be the most exciting topic, but the importance is fully understood by the participants in terms of achieving a sustainable future,” Bolduc said.
“We’re also pleased to see that 60% of the membership achieved Level 3 or higher for the greenhouse gas performance indicator,” he added. “This reflects the increasing number of participants conducting either fleet-wide or port-wide GHG inventories, which is the first major step towards measuring progress towards decarbonization.”
Green Marine is maintaining its leadership role by stewarding the maritime industry through its No. 1 challenge of decarbonization. The 2022 program released earlier this year includes criteria for ship owners designed to encourage them to achieve specific reduction targets to surpass the International Maritime Organization’s 2050 decarbonization goals.
On June 2nd, 2022, the Board of Directors was elected during Green Marine’s Annual General Meeting. A sincere thank you was extended to Brandy Christian, the President and CEO of the Port of New Orleans, for her contribution during two successive terms on the board.
Green Marine also welcomed Jonathan Daniels, Chief Executive and Port Director at Port Everglades, to the Board as a new Director. “He’s been a strong advocate of Green Marine for years, enrolling the Port of Gulfport into the program in 2014 when he was its executive director,” Bolduc noted. “His extensive experience in leadership roles at several U.S. ports will be extremely valuable to our board.”
Bolduc also took the occasion to welcome representatives of Green Marine Europe to GreenTech 2022. “We are so pleased that they’ve finally been able to join us post-pandemic in person after Green Marine Europe’s launch in April 2020,” he said. “It will also give us a chance to hash out key strategies for even greater collaboration between Green Marine and Green Marine Europe.”
GreenTech 2022 continues at the Omni Mont-Royal Hotel in Montreal until Friday, June 10th. Some 300 delegates registered for this conference from Canada, the United States, and Europe, with the Exhibition Hall selling out soon after registration opened.
View Green Marine complete 2021 Annual Performance Report.
Green Marine overview
Founded in 2007, this year marks Green Marine’s North American environmental certification program’s 15th year as a voluntary effort by the shipping industry to go beyond regulations. There are currently more than 170 ship owners, port authorities, terminal and shipyard operators throughout Canada and the United States participating in the program. A pivotal element of Green Marine’s success from the outset has been the active support from environmental stakeholders, the scientific community, and governments. A significant number of the more than 90 Green Marine supporters participate in reviewing and shaping the environmental program. More details are available at www.green-marine.org.