BY: Carly Michiels, Sr. Environmental Policy Director

Green Marine is leading environmental certification program for North America’s maritime industry that helps its participants to improve their environmental performance beyond regulations. Every year they host a GreenTech conference that brings together leaders in various sectors from all over the globe. It is a forum to learn more about environmental issues of keen interest to the maritime industry and its stakeholders.  

At this event, as the Senior Environmental Policy Director, I was able to learn, network with experts in their fields, and share some of the issues before many of our port members. Although this event was focused on the maritime industry, much of the environmental issues and emerging technology discussions could be applied more widely across other industries and ports in the state of Washington.  

There were many panels and discussions around energy, decarbonization, and infrastructure. Across all the speakers there seemed to be a common theme and motivation to address zero emission goals through sustainable planning, optimizing technology to move forward, and working with available federal and state agencies to pursue incentives and identify needs to achieve these goals. It was encouraging to hear all the expertise and information sharing with a reliance on data and long-term thinking. Between all the panels and conversations there were a lot of connections to be made between everyone’s dedicated pathways forward.   

One panel relating to environmental justice and community relations outlined various approaches in port development projects and emphasized the importance of outreach, communication, and community investment in these initiatives. The Port of Tacoma did a great overview of their Clean Air Strategy. They discussed collaborating through a community engagement framework to identify solutions and improve outcomes. I am looking forward to reading more about their strategy as they continue this work!  

After this conference I am excited to continue this work and really encouraged by all the dedicated, impressive folks working on these issues across the globe. More to come!