Pilot projects’ success expands Green Marine International’s global reach

Green Marine International has made its voluntary environmental certification program available to the maritime industry in several new countries after determining that its performance criteria are sufficiently challenging beyond each nation’s existing regulations.

“We’re delighted to further open the Green Marine program to the maritime operations in Australia, the Bahamas, and Mexico, and to already welcome new participants from each of these countries,” says David Bolduc, Green Marine International’s President and CEO. “Their participation bolsters the strength of the program in North America and Europe and raises the global bar for maritime transportation’s environmental sustainability.”

The newest participants are Grand Bahama Shipyard Ltd., SSA Marine Mexico, the Port Authority of New South Wales, and Manly Fast Ferry Pty Ltd. The Port of Brisbane, which also took part in the pilot projects, is currently working on its formal certification and expects to confirm its membership momentarily.

“It’s exciting to have the Green Marine program expanded in Australia with these key ports and ferry operators,” Bolduc says. “It’s also momentous to expand the North American program into Mexico through the nation’s leading terminal operator and to the Caribbean shipyard pivotal to the region’s cargo and cruise operations.”

Green Marine’s expansion follows pilot projects launched in June 2024 in response to interest from marine operators in Australia, the Bahamas, and Mexico joining the program. “By voluntarily agreeing to ‘test drive’ the program’s environmental performance indicators by applying them to their sustainability efforts, these maritime operators helped us to determine whether the criteria are sufficiently challenging beyond all mandatory requirements at each of the program’s five more progressively demanding levels,” explains Green Marine Program Manager Brittney Blokker.

The new participants welcomed the opportunity to evaluate their sustainability efforts through a widely recognized and respected framework:

“As the leading terminal operator in Mexico, it’s important for SSA Marine to set the example in terms of sustainability by evaluating our environmental efforts to date and identifying areas for improvement,” says Ana Maria Camacho Carranza, SSA Marine Mexico’s Director of Governmental and Public Relations.

“When we found out that Green Marine had a certification process specifically of shipyard operations, we were keen to find out how all of our environmental work to date measures up,” says Marvin Basden, Grand Bahama Shipyard’s Vice President for Environment, Quality, Facility Maintenance & Infrastructure. “We’re also looking forward to using the program’s framework to guide our sustainability as we make our shipyard the world’s largest cruise repair facility.”

 “It’s great to have our port become a part of a program that has proven to bring about environmental improvement among our counterparts in North America and, more recently, Europe,” says John McKenna, acting CEO of the Port Authority of New South Wales.

Manly Fast Ferry Pty Ltd looks forward to displaying its Green Marine certification. “It’s one thing to say what we’re doing,” says Nigel Ellsmore, Chief Operating Officer, Marine. “It’s even better to be able to show that we are actually doing it by becoming verified through a Green Marine certification.”

The new participants are working towards evaluating their environmental performance throughout 2024 for certification next month, when Green Marine published its Annual Performance Report during its GreenTech event.

Meanwhile, Green Marine Europe is working on expanding its environmental program to ports, which will be able to pursue certification in 2026. Several ports participate in the pilot project to adapt the Green Marine criteria to the European regulatory framework.