mcbem-2014-01-submission-wwf-en

VI - SHIPPING
The Green Marine Program
David Bolduc, Green Marine, presented by Jason Scherr, Port of Prince Rupert
Green Marine is a voluntary industry-based sustainability partnership initiative that seeks to reduce the
environmental footprint of marine shipping operations. The program began in October 2007, and now
has over 187 North American participants (Table 2). These include ship operators, port authorities,
terminal operators, industry associations, and shipyards.
Table 2: Growth in the four categories of participants in the Green Marine program since 2007.
Categories 2007 2013 Composition
Participants 34 73 Ship owners, port authorities, St. Lawrence Seaway, shipyards
Partners 23 58 Companies having business links with the marine industry or
to the maritime sector
Supporters 19 44 Governments, cities and municipalities, ENGOs and other
NGOs
Associations 7 12 Canadian and US maritime associations representing more
than 500 maritime companies in North America
Total 83 187
Currently the Green Marine program addresses nine major environmental issues: invasive species,
greenhouse gas emissions, other air emissions, cargo residues, oily water, community issues (dust,
noise, light, and odours), water and land pollution prevention, environmental leadership and garbage
management. For each environmental issue, the performance of participants is evaluated using a scale
from 1 to 5, with 1 equating to operations that are following current regulatory compliance, and a score
of 5 applied to those showing excellence and leadership in best practices, integrated management
systems, and the introduction of new technologies. This independent certification scheme is developing
benchmark tools to measure performance, and strives to promote a culture of continuous
improvement. Table 3 shows an example of the scoring system for the issue of greenhouse gas
emissions. In 2008, the average results of participants across all 8 environmental issues was 2.0 and it
has steadily increased to 2.95 in 2012, during which time membership in the program has increased
significantly, and the requirements from the program have become more stringent.
Green Marine membership is expanding on the west coast and now has 30 members (Table 4). A West
Coast Advisory Committee has recently been established and includes industry participants in the
program as well as representatives from government (Transport Canada and Environment Canada) and
NGOs (WWF Canada and the Vancouver Aquarium). The committee’s mandate is to oversee the
implementation, development and revision of the Green Marine environmental program. It will advise
and make recommendations on priority and regional environmental issues, as well as develop
performance indicators for all of the four categories of participants and address any other relevant
information relevant to the development and improvement of the Green Marine program.
The first West Coast Advisory Committee meeting was held on May 29, 2013 in Vancouver. Its priorities
for 2013 are to:
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