Coronado Yacht Club honored by the port as champion of the environment

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Each Green Harbor Month, the Harbor honors employees and also recognizes an outstanding community leader and tenants with the Michelle White Environmental Award. Michelle was a former port employee who made many important contributions to the port’s environmental legacy. She launched the Green Port Month program 14 years ago to celebrate the port’s environmental achievements and recognize employees who integrate environmental decisions into their daily lives. The port named the environmental awards in his honor after his passing nearly five years ago to commemorate his passion and commitment to the port’s environmental efforts.

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“The Port of San Diego is a champion of the environmental health of the San Diego Bay and its tidelands, and the Green Port program has helped us integrate environmental sustainability into our daily operations,” said Michael Zucchet, president of the Board of Directors of the Port of San Diego. “Today we recognize our port staff, community leaders and tenants who are leading the way in reducing the port’s carbon footprint.”

Two tenants of the port received the Michelle White award as environmental champions at the board meeting on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 – the Coronado Yacht Club and G2 Ocean.

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The Coronado Nautical Club created a green committee to deal with environmental issues. The Yacht Club has installed a floating marine skimmer which is attached to a floating dock at the northern end of Glorietta Bay. The skimmer can operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It pumps 350 to 400 gallons of water through its system to remove and collect floating debris and oil reflections from the water surface. Additionally, the Coronado Yacht Club is proactively considering coastal resilience planning and strategies.

G2 Ocean, a general cargo shipping company based in Norway, is a tenant of the Tenth Avenue marine terminal in the port. Its ocean liner service regularly brings cargoes of steel, coils, yachts and fertilizer to port. The company, along with its vice president of operations, Anthony Damron, is recognized for its exceptional commitment to the port’s voluntary ship speed reduction program. Over 90% of G2 ship calls to port in 2019 and 2020 were at reduced speeds in line with program targets.

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Port employees who received this year’s Michelle White Employee Environmental Awards were Sally Raney, Assistant District Clerk, District Clerk’s Office; Veronica Bango, Xerox Consultant, District Clerk’s Office; and the late Charlie Starns, Maintenance Supervisor, Corporate Services.

Raney and Bango have teamed up with former team member Angela Williams to shift port from daily physical mail processing to email delivery for most departments during the pandemic. This has reduced the vehicle kilometers that would have been required for administrative staff to travel to the port administration building to process US mail from the port over the past 15 months.

Starns has been recognized for several environmental contributions. He was responsible for monitoring annual greenhouse gas emissions inventories for port operations, was an advocate for the use of alternative fuels, such as renewable diesel for port fleet vehicles, and was an avid supporter of a plan to electrify all general service vehicles in the port. by the end of the decade. His knowledge of electric vehicles was invaluable in planning the conversion to electric service vehicles. Under Starns’ leadership, the port switched to renewable diesel in 2018 and has since reduced its fossil fuel emissions by 474 metric tonnes.

This year’s Community Leader Award went to Jason Anderson, President and CEO of Cleantech San Diego. Over the years, Anderson has worked with the port to provide technology demonstration opportunities, access to cleantech professionals, and training on industry and state and federal efforts that support the port’s climate action plan. and other environmental initiatives.

Additionally, in conjunction with Green Port Month, the Council of Port Commissioners passed a resolution supporting California Clean Air Day, which takes place on October 6, 2021. Sponsored by the Coalition for Clean Air, California Clean Air Day offers a unique opportunity to involve community stakeholders and engage in actions to help improve air quality. The port will join more than 340 government organizations, businesses and nonprofit partners in celebrating California Clean Air Day.

Another highlight of Green Port Month is the publication of the annual review of the Green Port Year. This document takes stock of the environmental achievements of the Port. Here are some of the port’s environmental successes in fiscal year 2020-2021:

• The port, in partnership with the California Coastal Conservancy, received an $ 890,000 grant from the US Fish & Wildlife Service to build a Living Shoreline, a nature-inspired shoreline with a native oyster reef, on the north side of the Chula Vista Wildlife Reserve. , to increase biodiversity and improve the resilience of the adjacent coastal salt marsh to the projected impacts of climate change.
• The port has advanced the draft maritime air quality strategy to improve public health by accelerating zero and near zero emissions technologies. The port also actively supported the development of the complementary community emissions reduction plan, in close collaboration with community representatives, regional stakeholders and public bodies.
• The port acted on the energy-related Climate Action Plan targets, resulting in an approximate 17% reduction in electricity and 60% natural gas, resulting in annual savings of ‘about $ 300,000.
• In addition, 45 vessels identified as marine debris were removed from San Diego Bay, 337 tons of recycled material was diverted from port facilities, 15 pounds of fishing line were salvaged from San Diego Bay and recycled, and the use of renewable diesel fuel increased by 33%.

Click on here to see the full review of the year of the green port for 2021.

Throughout Green Harbor Month, the Port of San Diego will encourage employees to sign their own sustainability pledges, participate in virtual cleanup events, promote California Clean Air Day via social media, and do advance the development of the Maritime Clean Air Strategy based on its Vision “Healthy equity for all”.