Port of Prince Rupert shares its progress in GHG reductions in latest sustainability report
The Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) has released its 2022 sustainability report highlighting the port’s achievements for that year in the social, environmental and governmental realms.
In its 12th year as a certified participant in 2022, the PRPA noted its top Level 5 ranking for four of Green Marine’s environmental performance indicators, related specifically to greenhouse gases and air pollutants, community impacts, community relations, and environmental leadership.
Working with BMO Radicle to calculate and verify the organization’s carbon footprint, the PRPA has retained its carbon neutrality since 2015 by continuing to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint and offsetting the remaining emissions with carbon credits that benefit British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest where the port is located.
Some of the other key environmental highlights of the report include:
- A total of 38 ships qualified for the port’s Green Vessel Incentive Program in 2022 that rewards these vessels for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. A total of 4,785 tonnes of CO2were avoided in the local airshed – the equivalent of removing 1,008 vehicles off the road for a year.
- A new incentive for cargo vessels that plug into shore power at the Fairview Container Terminal was introduced after the system was activated at the north berth and the equipment upgraded on the south berth. The $7.6-million project involving the PRPA, DP World Prince Rupert, BC Hydro, as well as Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Low Carbon Economy Challenge Funding, was forecasted to eliminate nearly 30,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually – the equivalent of removing more than 6,500 passenger vehicles from the road.
- The Fairview-Ridley Connector Corridor officially opened in August 2002, linking DP World’s Fairview Container Terminal with future transloading sites on Ridley and South Kaien Islands. The corridor shortens the distance that container trucks usually must travel to enter and exit the Fairview Terminal from 21 kilometres (13 miles) to 5.3 miles (3.2 kilometres). The new route is estimated to reduce GHG intensity from container road traffic by 60%.
The PRPA also carried out its most significant habitat compensation project to date in 2022. The $4-million Seal Cove Salt Marsh revitalization project was done to offset the construction of the Fairview-Ridley Connector Corridor. The project involved overhauling the intertidal and marine riparian areas in a part of Prince Rupert degraded from more than century of industrial and other human activities. It included clearing out debris, exposing an existing creek, and revitalizing habitat.