Green Marine

Green Marine: The marine industry environmental partnership
Green Marine, a voluntary environmental program, is an industry first. Businesses active on the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes in Canada and the U.S. are being invited to participate in the program to do their part to improve the marine industry’s environmental performance. More specifically, the program targets marine industry sectors active on the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes in Canada and the U.S.: domestic and international ship-owners, ports, terminals and stevedoring companies and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Green Marine program initially will address six environmental issues that are top priority for the industry: aquatic invasive species, air pollution emissions, greenhouse gases, cargo residues, oily water and use conflicts in ports and terminals. In the near future, the program will be expanded to include other issues to further reduce the environmental impact of marine activities.

The Green Marine program requires companies to identify the issues relevant to their particular operations and implement specific best practices that will contribute to reducing the environmental impacts of their business activities.

Green Marine defines concrete environmental actions, goals and control measures for companies to implement that go beyond regulatory requirements.

Each company’s performance is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, ranging from compliance with applicable regulations in effect through to a standard of excellence. In the initial implementation phase, the program is based on self-evaluation. Participating companies will be asked to evaluate their environmental performance for each of the six priority issues. As the program evolves, an external verification system will be introduced.

The results will be published in a Green Marine Annual Report thereby allowing the public, political and economic decision makers and businesses to see for themselves the environmental progress made by participants.

Participants that have fulfilled the requirements of the program receive the Green Marine seal of certification, which they may use to show their commitment to continuous environmental improvement.

CSL is an active participant in Green Marine and was instrumental in the development of the program. CSL President Gerry Carter is co-chair of its CEO Steering Committee.

Additional information on all facets of this industry initiative is available on the Green Marine Web site: www.green-marine.org.