Tacoma Port Recognizes Summit Award Winners

By Mark Edward Nero

The Port of Tacoma on March 25 recognized its relationships with customers and stakeholders by honoring three of them for their contributions to port business and the Pierce County community.

Recipients of the fourth annual Summit Awards were named during the port’s annual breakfast. They are: Harley Marine Services, which received the Environmental Stewardship award; the Tacoma Seafarers’ Center, which received the Livable Community award; and Regal Logistics, which earned the Business Magnet award.

Seattle-based tug and barge company Harley Marine was honored for focusing on using the newest and best engines, installing shore power when possible and instituting company-wide recycling initiatives.

Thus far, the company has replaced 12 vessel engines, reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by 47 percent and particulate matter by 57 percent. Harley Marine also recycles its waste oil and bilge water, as well as plastic, aluminum, glass, paper and composting. Its 2011 “Go Paperless!” initiative reduced paper use by 37 percent.

Award honoree Tacoma Seafarers’ Center has been a Port of Tacoma tenant since 1978. The non-profit organization’s roster of 25 volunteers serves more than 10,000 seafarers on more than 700 ships each year. The center offers Internet connections, phones, refreshments, television, reading material, a chapel, a sundry store and local transportation to seafarers who arrive on cargo ships. Last Christmas, the center distributed 1,700 gift boxes to 86 ships.

Regal Logistics has provided warehousing, distribution and logistics services to port customers since 1984. The company tracks goods in real time from when they land at the Port of Tacoma until they reach store shelves. Regal employed more than 125 full-time local workers in 2014, as well as another 100 to 300 seasonal staff.

The three award recipients were selected by a panel of community and business leaders led by port Commissioner Connie Bacon.

Tacoma Port Accepting 2015 Summit Award Nominations

By Mark Edward Nero

The Port of Tacoma said Jan. 5 that it has opened nominations for its annual Summit Awards, which recognize customers and tenants for excellence and achievement.

The awards, which will be presented at a March 25 breakfast, recognize three categories of leadership:

• Business Magnet: a port customer or member of the supply chain – shipper, transportation or logistics service provider, developer – recognized for business development efforts and investments that led to a recognizable increase in business volume or new business opportunities for the port and have a positive economic effect for the citizens of Pierce County.
• Livable Community: a port customer or tenant recognized for a project, program or initiative that demonstrated the business community’s positive contribution to Pierce County through social responsibility. Criteria include philanthropy and charitable giving, community service and employee volunteering, community engagement and outreach and employee development.
• Environmental Stewardship: a port customer or tenant recognized for a project, program or initiative that supported Pierce County’s sustainability and honors biodiversity and the interconnected nature of industry, people, wildlife and natural systems.

Recipients will be chosen by a panel of community and business leaders led by a Tacoma port commissioner.

Nomination forms and information are available at www.portoftacoma.com/summits.

Nominations are due by 5 p.m. Feb. 13. Completed forms can be emailed to lkvidera@portoftacoma.com, faxed to (253) 593-4534 or mailed to: Port of Tacoma Summit Awards, P.O. Box 1837, Tacoma, WA 98401-1837.

Updates about the awards and the annual breakfast can be received by subscribing to the port’s Summit Awards email list athttps://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WAPT/subscriber/new?topic_id=WAPT_55

Port of Tacoma Schedules Annual Breakfast

By Mark Edward Nero

The Port of Tacoma has scheduled its annual breakfast for April 9. The two-hour event begins at 7:30 a.m. at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center, 1500 Broadway in Tacoma.

This year’s theme is “Charging into the competitive landscape,” and attendees will have a chance to hear how change in the international container industry is forcing ports and shippers to think and act differently.

Port CEO John Wolfe will discuss how the port is addressing the increasingly competitive environment, and keynote speaker Bill Mongelluzzo, a senior editor with the Journal of Commerce, is expected to examine the new paradigm emerging in the big-ship era and provide an outlook for US West Coast ports.

Also, the port will honor its annual Summit Award winners. The Summit Awards recognize port customers and tenants for outstanding contributions to port business and our community in three categories:

• Business Magnet recognizes business development efforts or investments that led to an increase in business volume or new business opportunities for the port, and had a positive economic impact for Pierce County citizens.
• Environmental Stewardship recognizes a project, program or initiative that promoted sustainability in Pierce County and honors biodiversity and the interconnected nature of industry, people, wildlife and natural systems.
• Livable Community recognizes a project, program or initiative that made a positive contribution to Pierce County through social responsibility. Criteria include philanthropy and charitable giving, community service and employee volunteering, community engagement and outreach and employee development.

This year’s Summit Award nominees include Delong Company, Emerald Home Furnishings, International Paper, Friends of Julia's Gulch, PCC Logistics, Pierce County Terminal/Evergreen Line, Summit Realty Group, TPT US Limited and Transportation Club of Tacoma.

Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door, if still available. The price includes breakfast and parking. Seats can be reserved online until April 2 at www.portoftacoma.com/summits.

Port of Tacoma Accepting Summit Award Nominations

By Mark Edward Nero

The Port of Tacoma has opened nominations for its 2014 Summit Awards, which recognize customers and tenants for excellence and achievement.

The awards, which will be presented at an April 9 breakfast, recognize three categories of leadership:

Business Magnet: a port customer or member of the supply chain – shipper, transportation or logistics service provider, developer – recognized for business development efforts and investments that led to a recognizable increase in business volume or new business opportunities for the port and have a positive economic effect for the citizens of Pierce County.

Livable Community: a port customer or tenant recognized for a project, program or initiative that demonstrated the business community’s positive contribution to Pierce County through social responsibility. Criteria include philanthropy and charitable giving, community service and employee volunteering, community engagement and outreach and employee development.

Environmental Stewardship: a port customer or tenant recognized for a project, program or initiative that supported Pierce County’s sustainability and honors biodiversity and the interconnected nature of industry, people, wildlife and natural systems.

Recipients will be chosen by a panel of community and business leaders led by a Tacoma port commissioner.

Nomination forms and information are available at www.portoftacoma.com/summits.

Nominations are due by 5 p.m. Feb. 13. Completed forms can be emailed to lkvidera@portoftacoma.com, faxed to (253) 593-4534 or mailed to: Port of Tacoma Summit Awards, P.O. Box 1837, Tacoma, WA 98401-1837.

Updates about the awards and the annual breakfast can be received by subscribing to the port’s Summit Awards email list at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WAPT/subscriber/new?topic_id=WAPT_55.

Port of Tacoma Honors Summit Award Winners

The Port of Tacoma recently recognized its relationships with customers and tenants by honoring four of them with the second annual Summit Awards for their contributions to port business and the Pierce County community.

The awards were presented May 23 at the port’s annual breakfast. Award recipients included port tenant Targa Sound Terminal for Livable Community, Trident Seafoods for Environmental Stewardship and Washington United Terminals for Business Magnet.

“We are so proud of the port’s many customers and tenants who understand that business, environmental stewardship and livable communities go hand in hand,” Commission President Don Meyer said at the event.

In 2012, Washington United Terminals attracted the business of the Grand Alliance – Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL and NYK Line and associated carrier ZIM, as well as Hamburg Sud. The additional business has generated more than 1,000 direct new family-wage jobs and increased economic activity in the community, according to the port. Increases have been notable in trucking, distribution and third-party supply chain services.

The terminal also has increased rail volume by about 50,000 lifts, which helped support greater rail efficiency and intermodal yard use for all rail users in the port industrial area. To support this increased business, Washington United Terminals invested more than $20 million in new and upgraded equipment.

Additionally, the selection committee honored SAFE Boats with a special Business Investment award. When SAFE Boats received a contract to build large patrol boats for the US Navy, the company invested its own money to upgrade the Earley Business Center, a facility that was the site of naval shipbuilding during World War II.

SAFE Boats investments in the property included re-siding part of the building, installing gas service and heating for the warehouse, repairing fencing, installing new rolling doors large enough to accommodate the finished boats and installing new energy-efficient lighting.

The renovations have resulted in 60 new jobs in Tacoma according to the port, and also provided new business for other tenants in the Earley Business Center, including Citadel Marine Center, as well as local marine suppliers, service providers and skilled fabricators.

The award recipients were selected by a panel of community and business leaders led by Commission President Meyer. The panel included Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland and Debbie Fischer of the Customs Brokers & International Freight Forwarders Association of Washington State.

More information about the Summit Awards is available at www.portoftacoma.com/summits.

Tacoma Port Opens Summit Award Nominations

The Port of Tacoma has opened nominations for its 2013 Summit Awards, which recognize customers and tenants for excellence and achievement.

The awards, which will be presented at an April breakfast, recognize three categories of leadership:

Business Magnet: a port customer or member of the supply chain – shipper, transportation or logistics service provider, developer – recognized for business development efforts and investments that led to a recognizable increase in business volume or new business opportunities for the port and have a positive economic effect for the citizens of Pierce County.

Livable Community: a port customer or tenant recognized for a project, program or initiative that demonstrated the business community’s positive contribution to Pierce County through social responsibility. Criteria include philanthropy and charitable giving, community service and employee volunteering, community engagement and outreach and employee development.

Environmental Stewardship: a port customer or tenant recognized for a project, program or initiative that supported Pierce County’s sustainability and honors biodiversity and the interconnected nature of industry, people, wildlife and natural systems.

Recipients will be chosen by a panel of community and business leaders led by a port commissioner.

Nomination forms and information are available at www.portoftacoma.com/summits.

Nominations are due by 5 p.m. Feb. 13, 2013. They can be emailed to Larry Kvidera at lkvidera@portoftacoma.com, faxed to (253) 593-4534 or mailed to Port of Tacoma Summit Awards, PO Box 1837, Tacoma, WA 98401-1837.

Port of Tacoma Names Summit Award Winners

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.