Practice
Green Marine International
Aspect contributions
How this practice contributes to the green port aspects.
| Aspect | Role | Justification |
|---|---|---|
| Certification and Benchmarking | Core | A performance-based environmental certification, with annual self-evaluation verified by an accredited third party every other year. |
| Regulatory Compliance | Secondary | Level 1 of the five-level scale requires participants to monitor the regulations relevant to their operations. |
| Low-Emission Technology | Secondary | The greenhouse gas and air pollutant, NOx, and SOx and PM indicators drive emission reductions. |
| Maintenance | Secondary | The surface treatments and coatings indicator addresses the environmental management of coating work. |
| Materials Handling | Secondary | The dry bulk handling and storage indicator addresses dust and spills from bulk cargo. |
| Resource Use and Waste Management | Secondary | The waste management, and spill prevention and stormwater management, indicators address waste and discharges. |
| Biosecurity and Biodiversity Management | Secondary | The aquatic invasive species and aquatic ecosystems indicators address biosecurity and habitat protection. |
| Social Licence and Community Engagement | Secondary | The community impacts and community relations indicators address neighbor concerns and engagement. |
| Decommissioning and End-of-Life | Secondary | The ship recycling indicator addresses the end-of-life management of vessels. |
Summary
Green Marine International is a voluntary, performance-based environmental certification for the maritime sector, covering shipowners, port authorities, seaway corporations, as well as terminal and shipyard operators. The program aims to encourage its participants to improve environmental performance and go beyond regulations and compliance.
Since the launching of the Green Marine Program in 2007, the certification has distinguished itself through its credibility and success in encouraging its participants to continually improve their environmental performance. Initially designed for the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes region (in Canada and the United States), the program quickly attracted continental and worldwide interest.
In 2020, the Green Marine Europe Program was launched in collaboration with Surfrider Foundation Europe, extending the certification to this area of the world. Today, Green Marine International oversees the Green Marine and Green Marine Europe certification programs and is gradually opening to new regions of the world, such as Australia, Mexico, and the Bahamas.
Green Marine International aims to ensure that the programs maintain rigorous standards across all continents, and that the requirements of both programs are continually adapted to stay beyond regulation.
Participants assess their performance annually against a set of defined performance indicators that target key issues, such as greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, water and soil quality, spill prevention, underwater noise, waste management, as well as community impacts and community relations, and are scored across progressive performance levels. Results are independently verified by accredited third parties and published, creating strong accountability and peer benchmarking.
For ports, the programs provides a practical pathway to measurable environmental improvement, credible external assurance, and a clear way to demonstrate leadership to regulators, customers and communities, while complementing broader ESG and infrastructure sustainability frameworks.
Details
The Green Marine and Green Marine Europe programs provide a tiered structured approach to improving environmental performance across 15 key indicators. The program recognizes five participant categories: shipowners, port authorities, seaway corporations, terminal operators and shipyard operators.
The 15 environmental performance indicators are applied selectively across these participant categories. Not all indicators are relevant to every participant type; for example, the underwater noise indicator applies only to shipowners and to port authorities operating in salt water and brackish environments.
For port authorities, nine indicators are assessed, while terminal operators are assessed against seven indicators. The specific indicators applied are determined by the nature and scope of each participant’s operations, ensuring the assessment remains targeted, proportionate and operationally relevant.
The progress of the participants is evaluated yearly on a 1-to-5 scale across each performance indicator to promote continual improvement:
- Monitoring of Regulations
- Best Practices
- Integrated Management and Quantified Impacts
- New Technologies and Reduction Targets
- Excellence and Leadership
To participate in the Green Marine or Green Marine Europe programs and be formally recognized, participants are required to complete an annual self-evaluation against the applicable performance indicators. Assessment results must then be independently reviewed and verified every other year by an accredited third-party verifier.
Initial certification is granted once a participant’s first self-evaluation has been successfully externally verified. From their first year in the program, participants are required to achieve at least Level 2 in a minimum of one performance indicator. In subsequent years, participants must demonstrate continual improvement, achieving an increase of at least one performance level in at least one indicator each year, until Level 2 performance is reached across all applicable indicators.
The Green Marine/Green Marine Europe certification logo is used to identify participants that have successfully met the program’s certification and verification requirements, providing a clear signal of credible environmental performance within the maritime sector.
Enabling factors
Level 1 of the five-point scale requires participants to demonstrate how they are monitoring regulations that are relevant to their operations. This promotes an assessment of both regional and in some cases international regulations applicable to the sector.
Level 4 o (New technologies and reduction targets) promotes adoption of improved technologies.
The program promotes sustainable procurement through a series of indicators that drive environmental considerations in purchasing policies and practices.
The program promotes collaboration with local and regional stakeholders as well as academia, technology developers, innovation clusters, research bodies and government.