Projects

Comparison of Green Marine to other port certification programs around the world to achieve global standardization

Green Marine is an environmental certification program established in 2007 to mitigate potential environmental impacts from the maritime industry using self-evaluation to measure environmental performance. The program’s main goals are to facilitate the marine industry in reducing its environmental footprint, strengthening its environmental performance, moving beyond regulatory compliance, and establishing strong relationships with stakeholders. Though it is relatively new, Green Marine holds significant promise as a globally recognized sustainable port certification program. As the program grows, there is an opportunity for Green Marine to improve their performance indicators (PI) and/or standardize with other international programs. There are visible similarities and differences between Green Marine and its international counterparts; however, a careful evaluation using a gap analysis would further elucidate these differences so that they may be used to improve program performance. The program can be strengthened by benchmarking environmental performance indicators to those of leading programs. The environmental PIs can also be strengthened during this process which will allow ports to improve their environmental performance across jurisdictions. This research thus aims to address the following objectives: 1.To determine differences and similarities between Green Marine and other international environmental PI frameworks using a gap analysis. 2.To determine how each program benchmarks and scores their environmental PIs to identify the metrics that could be used in program standardization. 3.To compare PI scoring metrics for each program to determine if the performance scores are under or overstated to identify and determine if standardized approaches could be implemented in programs. 4.To define the parameters of a sustainable port and develop a framework to measure sustainability drawing on existing, robust metrics that have credibility within both the private and public sectors.  Ultimately, this project aims to work towards a global standardization of port development and sustainability.