Friday, June 4, 2021

U.S. West Coast Scores Big in Green Marine Certification

Fifteen U.S. West Coast participants have received their Green Marine certification or recertification, the environmental certification organization announced this week at its 14th Annual GreenTech conference.

Those who garnered the designation include the Alaska Marine Highway System, Fishermen’s Finest, Inc., Puget Sound Pilots, Washington State Ferries, Northwest Seaport Alliance, Port of Anacortes, Port of Everett, Port of Hueneme, Port of Olympia, Port of San Diego, Port of Seattle, Port of Stockton, Ceres Terminals Inc. (at the Port of Hueneme), TraPac (at the Port of Los Angeles) and Motive Power Marine.

U.S. West Coast participants are among the 154 maritime participants in Canada and the U.S. who allow their environmental performance to be evaluated by an independent verifier accredited by Green Marine. They are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 based on 14 performance indicators.

This year, Fishermen’s Finest became the first fishing fleet to participate and obtain certification under the program for the maritime industry.

“To us, global warming is not just a well-supported theory, but a reality that our ship captains and crews are witnessing every year with the receding Bering Sea ice,” said Fishermen’s Finest CEO Helena Park. “We believe the Green Marine framework will help us to achieve our environmental goals which include ultimately establishing a net-zero carbon fleet – something we’ve started towards by building a new vessel that reduces fuel consumption by 66% and investing in the first sale of urban forest carbon credits in King County.”

“The commitment to continual improvement that our participants maintained despite the pandemic crisis in 2020 is admirable,” added David Bolduc, Green Marine’s executive director. “The fact that the overall results have remained steady is a remarkable outcome given not only the need to pivot regular operations to prioritize health and safety during the COVID-19 outbreak, but also in view of the program’s widening scope of issues and more stringent criteria for several performance indicators.”