GREEN MARINE
Green Marine expands its horizons with new performance indicators By Véronique Trudeau Green Marine Program Manager
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reen Marine has significantly expanded its scope from the six environmental issues originally prioritized in 2008. The environmental certification program currently has 14 performance indicators with two more in the works. Ports are being challenged to embrace new social responsibilities and to broaden their environmental efforts with new performance indicators added to the landside program in 2021, as well as to broaden their environmental efforts with the upcoming Aquatic Ecosystems performance indicator. As with all new indicators, the idea for a specific focus on aquatic ecosystems in and around port waters came from the membership. In this case, it was Green Marine’s West Coast Advisory Committee. Green Marine already had an indicator for spill prevention and stormwater management. However, there was no requirement to assess the impacts of port activities on aquatic ecosystems, nor to monitor and improve their health. By comparison, impacts measurement and the adoption of a management plan are normally required at the program’s Level 3 and 4. They can be found in the Greenhouse Gases performance indicator, as well as for Waste Management. A core aspect of the Green Marine program is understanding what your impact is so that you can then devise an action plan to measurably improve your environmental performance.
New port requirements
The new performance indicator will suggest a series of measures to characterize, assess, monitor and improve the health of aquatic ecosystems. Some of the criteria will involve establishing stations to monitor water quality. Other criteria will outline physical and biological indicators to benchmark and monitor an ecosystem’s health over time. Qualifying for this indicator’s higher performance levels will require improving aquatic ecosystems, by restoring or improving existing aquatic life conditions or by establishing new habitat. An ultimate goal is to have real-time monitoring of key parameters that would promptly indicate any negative changes that could rapidly be addressed. The indicator will also include criteria that involve ports taking steps to prevent pollution from vessels in port waters. It furthermore will call upon ports to reduce the impacts of dredging and to improve sediment quality where that is feasible to do. Another element involves ports taking steps
Ports are being challenged to embrace new social responsibilities and to broaden their environmental efforts with new performance indicators... to assess and reduce the risk of spreading aquatic invasive species. We realize that most ports — except for possibly the largest ones — do not have the specialized equipment, expert staff nor financial resources to do all this. We also don’t want our participants to have to reinvent the wheel. Therefore, one of the first steps in this performance indicator will be to identify and contact potential collaborators or partners to help with benchmarking and subsequent monitoring. It could be that in some cases a governmental agency, a research institute or an NGO is already doing some of this work and can provide the required information or arrange with a port to do so. Green Marine is in the process of drafting all the Aquatic Ecosystems performance indicator criteria for the program’s four levels beyond the initial stage of monitoring of regulations for presentation to the membership this fall. Once we receive and integrate the feedback from our Advisory Committees and the ports within the program, the indicator will be submitted for board approval and ultimately introduced for voluntary reporting as part of the 2023 self-evaluations. Reporting on a new indicator is always optional for the first year. This gives participants some time to familiarize themselves with the new requirements and how they can adjust their organization’s activities to achieve each of the program’s four increasingly challenging stages beyond Level 1’s compulsory monitoring of regulations. A trial year also facilitates a testing of the criteria and its related guidelines to ensure that May 2022 — PACIFIC PORTS — 37
