IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Julia Fields (613) 294-8515
Ottawa, Ontario (December 10, 2010) — Canadian and U.S. mayors from cities around the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River passed a resolution today to support Green Marine, an environmental program established by the marine shipping industry.
Green Marine is a bi-national, voluntary program that aims to improve participants’ environmental performance beyond regulatory compliance by introducing best practices, reduction targets and/or new technologies to improve their record in areas such as invasive species, air emissions and greenhouse gases, cargo residues, oily waters, conflicts of use within Ports and environmental leadership.
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a bi-national collaboration of mayors and local officials dedicated to the protection and restoration of the waterways, Friday endorsed the program and agreed to become an official supporter of Green Marine.
David Bolduc, executive director of Green Marine, said that this resolution would help foster further communication between the marine shipping industry and cities and communities around the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region on its environmental improvements and would also aid in his efforts to recruit new participants.
Bolduc said: “We have over 100 industry participants, partners and supporters and we are now working to extend that participation even further throughout the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system and beyond. This endorsement further enhances the credibility of the program. We have already had federal and provincial governments as supporters and we are pleased to add mayors from cities around the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to that list.”
Established in 2008, the Green Marine program has been nominated for a Sustainable Shipping Award and has received formal support from environmental groups like World Wildlife Fund and Ducks Unlimited.
Port authorities, shipowners and terminal operators — who represent nearly half of the marine shipping activity in the Great Lakes-Seaway region— evaluate their individual performance each year on a one-to-five scale from regulatory compliance to achieving excellence. Their results are independently verified by a third party and shared publicly to demonstrate their environmental commitment.
For a full list of participants and the latest performance results go to www.green-marine.org.
Marine Delivers is a bi-national, industry collaboration that aims to demonstrate the economic contribution and environmental sustainability of the shipping industry throughout the Great Lakes region. The Marine Delivers initiative is administered by the American Great Lakes Ports Association in the United States, and the Chamber of Marine Commerce in Canada. For more information, visit the Marine Delivers website at www.marinedelivers.com.
The Chamber of Marine Commerce (CMC) is a bi-national association that represents diverse marine industry stakeholders including major Canadian and American shippers, ports, terminals and marine service providers, as well as Canadian domestic and international ship owners. The Chamber advocates for safe, sustainable, harmonized and competitive policy and regulation that recognizes the marine transportation system's significant advantages in the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence, Coastal and Arctic regions.
Media Contact:
Jason Card
Chamber of Marine Commerce
jcard@cmc-ccm.com
(613) 447 5401