Green Marine is a joint Canada-U.S. initiative aimed at implementing a marine industry environmental program throughout North America. Founded in 2007 by the major marine industry associations in both Canada and the U.S., Green Marine has a reputation for credibility and transparency, and for challenging participant companies to improve their environmental performance beyond regulatory compliance. The organization is headed by a Board of Directors made up of industry leaders from both the US and Canada, that represent a variety of sectors within the shipping industry.

The Green Marine Environmental Program, the founding basis of the organization operation makes it possible for any marine company operating in Canada or the U.S. to be recognized and gain certification by voluntarily improving its environmental performance. Certification requires the company to undertake concrete and measurable actions that meet the standards of Green Marine. While the program was originally conceived for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence corridor, the interest it has generated throughout the marine industry has enabled it to evolve into a bi-national program that now covers North America in its entirety.

The Green Marine Environmental Program is an action plan that addresses nine major environmental issues identified by the marine industry:

• Aquatic invasive species
• Air emissions (SOx and NOx)
• Greenhouse gases
• Cargo residues
• Oily waters
• Community impacts (noise, dust, odours and luminous pollution)
• Environmental leadership
• Waste Management
• Prevention of spills and leakages

Certification through the program includes 4 steps:

1. Evaluation – Green Marine requires participants to adopt practices and technologies that will have a direct impact on the ground. The progress that participants make in this respect is evaluated with the help of performance indicators, which are defined on a scale ranging from one to five based on: 1. Compliance with applicable regulations and adherence to Green Marine’s guiding principles, 2. Systematic use of a defined number of best practices, 3. Integration of best practices into an adopted management plan and quantifiable understanding of environmental impacts, 4. Introduction of new technologies, 5. Excellence and leadership
2. External Verification – Participants’ results are subject to an external audit every two years, during which an independent third party will visit their premises to check their facilities and procedures, and verify the accuracy of the data used to compile their results.
3. Publication of Results – Participants’ individual results, as well as the global results attained by the industry as a whole, are published on a yearly basis in Green Marine’s annual progress report. Individual results are also available via an interactive map.
4. Certification – To be able to show their commitment to the Green Marine environmental program, participants each receive a certificate attesting to their environmental performance. Certified participants of Green Marine are encouraged to continuously improve their environmental performance.

Green Marine lists each certified port, Terminals, stevedoring companies, shipyards, and shipowners available on its website, as well as funding partners, supporting governments and groups, and affiliated industry associations.

Green Marine also publishes a semi-annual magazine with news about environmental sustainability in the shipping industry.