Winners have been announced in the Port of Tacoma’s first-ever Summit Awards, given for outstanding contributions to port business and the surrounding community.
The “Business Magnet” award was given to container transload company MacMillan-Piper. In giving the award, the port said the recipient had doubled its warehouse transloading space to 202,000 feet to support handling bulk cargoes in the past year, and also helped improve air quality by reducing the number of idling and draying trucks by unloading import containers and load them with exports in the same location.
International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 23 received the port’s “Livable Community” award for donating more than $200,000 in money and goods during holiday drives and other fundraisers during the past year. Union members also donated thousands of hours of their personal time to organizations such as Tall Ships Tacoma, St. Leo’s Hospitality Kitchen and the Multiple Sclerosis Walk.
Totem Ocean Trailer Express, which provides weekly trailership service between Tacoma and Anchorage, received the port’s “Environmental Stewardship” award. It was lauded for being the first commercial cargo carrier in Puget Sound to install shore power. As such, the company’s ships now operate off the commercial power grid when at berth instead of from the ship’s own diesel-powered generators.