August 2018 — The Port of Hueneme recently completed the annual recertification process to maintain their Green Marine certification, reporting even greener scores than last year. This comes one year after the Port made history as the first port in the state to earn the certification. The Port of Hueneme remains the only in California to be Green Marine certified, and is pushing full speed ahead with environmental initiatives and projects. “We approach our strategic planning, construction projects, and day-to-day operations with the goal of strengthening our community through creating good paying jobs and a clean environment, these go hand in hand for us,” said Oxnard Harbor District President Mary Anne Rooney. “This would not be possible without the support and collaboration of our community and local stakeholders who partner with us to implement innovative and cutting-edge strategies and projects.”
For example, the Port has brought in eco-friendly pilings to be used in the upcoming Port deepening project. The pilings are made from composite recycled plastic as opposed to the traditional wood pilings and do not emit any chemicals into the water. This helps protect the marine life in the harbor, as well as provides long-term pilings to hold up the wharfs as the harbor deepens to 40 feet. The pilings are also made in America and in compliance with the Buy American grant requirement. Furthermore, the Port’s customers have been utilizing the shoreside power system since 2016, which allows ships to plug into electricity while in Port and turn off their diesel burning engines as cargo is unloaded.
Port engineers connect a ship to shoreside power at the Port of Hueneme.
“Since becoming Green Marine certified last year, we have been successful in implementing new technologies and best practices at the Port including a new zero waste policy, phasing in high mast LED lighting to reduce energy use and light pollution, overhauling a harbor patrol boat to reduce emissions, switching to compostable supplies, and hosting zero waste events,” said CEO & Port Director Kristin Decas. “We have also been pursuing new grant opportunities to help the Port build greener infrastructure and procure zero-emission cargo handling equipment.”
Over the past year, the Port has continued to make strides in their waste reduction program which included the Board of Harbor Commissioners adopting a new zero waste policy. This action was rewarded with a higher score by Green Marine in the waste management category this year. The Port also improved their internal coordination for spill prevention which led to even higher marks for that category in which the Port already had five stars. In addition, the Port also maintained its five-star rating in Community Impacts and Environmental Leadership.
Green Marine’s environmental program assists ports, terminal operators and shipping lines in reducing their environmental footprint through a comprehensive program that addresses key environmental issues and criteria using 11 performance indicators including air emissions, prevention of spills and leakages, community impacts, and environmental leadership. The Port received the highest possible scores in the spill prevention, environmental leadership, and community impact categories. Being that Green Marine is completely voluntary, it affirms even further the Port of Hueneme’s commitment to staying on the leading edge of environmental stewardship.
Membership in Green Marine requires that members demonstrate year-over-year meaningful improvements in measurable ways to maintain their Green Marine certification. Green Marine’s metrics and their results are independently verified and released to the public. The Green Marine Performance Report can be found here.
Established in 2007, Green Marine is a North American environmental certification program for the maritime transportation industry. The program stems from the maritime industry’s voluntary initiative to surpass regulatory requirements. The Green Marine program’s unique character derives from the support being earned from more than 50 environmental groups and government agencies. These supporters contribute to shaping and revising the program. Read more at www.green-marine.org.
