"Green Port" Initiative Marks New Era at the Port of Long Beach

Amid the soaring gantry cranes and massive oceangoing freighters at the Port of Long Beach, and along the rails and roadways that deliver vital cargo to Southern California and the nation, an aggressive environmental ethic has taken hold.

The Port's charge, under its industry-leading "Green Port" initiative, is to dramatically reduce port-related environmental impacts while maintaining the economic benefits of international trade in the community.

To accomplish this task, the Port is harnessing imagination, cooperation and technological innovation.

The Port formally integrated environmental stewardship into its mission in January 2005, when the Port's governing body, the Board of Harbor Commissioners, approved the Green Port Policy. Green Port is a comprehensive set of guidelines aimed at improving air, water and soil quality, improving wildlife habitat and enhancing quality of life for the community.

"While we had many environmental programs in place before 2005, the Green Port initiative brought our environmental efforts to a new level," said Dr. Robert Kanter, the Port’s Managing Director of Environmental Affairs and Planning. "Green Port defines an aggressive ethic of environmental protection and sustainability that we are working hard to implement in every aspect of port operations."

The Ports air quality efforts under Green Port include the "Green Flag" program, which rewards oceangoing vessels for reducing their speeds (and thus their emissions) while in the harbor area. In its first full year, the Green Flag program reduced air pollution from visiting ships by nearly 400 tons. In addition, the Port has signed “Green Leases” with some terminal operators that require environmental improvements such as electrical power for ships at berth – allowing ships to shut down their diesel-fueled engines.

The Port also joined together with multiple partners to develop the groundbreaking San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan, approved in the summer of 2006. The Clean Air Action plan was developed by the Port and its traditional business competitor, the Port of Los Angeles, in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency, California Air Resources Board and South Coast Air Quality Management District. It was the first time the ports joined with federal and state air quality regulatory agencies to draft a cooperative environmental agreement.

The Clean Air Action Plan outlines a cooperative strategy to cut air pollution from all port-related sources by 50 percent in five years.

The ports are working with multiple industry stakeholders, including terminal operators, shipping companies, railroads and the trucking industry, to ensure that each are doing their fair share to cut air pollution. Every emissions source is being addressed, from large ships and smaller harbor craft to cargo-handling equipment, locomotives and diesel trucks.

Under the Clean Air Action Plan, the ports are developing a Technology Advancement Program to test and promote the use of cutting-edge environmental technologies. Another critical component of the plan addresses the roughly 16,000 short-haul, or “drayage,” trucks that work daily in the ports. By providing financial incentives, the ports aim to usher in an era of clean-diesel trucks to serve the docks.

A main target of the Clean Air Action Plan is particulate matter -- tiny airborne particles listed as a toxic air contaminant by the California Air Resources Board. The Port also aims to greatly reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (Sox), which play a role in the formation of ozone smog and particulate matter.

Designed as a “rolling 5-year plan” to be continually updated, the CAAP will be a progress report on the agencies’ efforts to contain and reduce the impact of diesel particulates in and around the ports and their trade routes through the greater Los Angeles area.

“With the Green Port policy we’ve made some significant promises to the community,” Kanter said. “And we’re working hard to deliver quickly on those promises.”