Princess Cruises Honored by Port of San Francisco for Environmental Efforts

Sea Princess has been honored by the Port of San Francisco with its annual “Cruise Ship Environmental Award.”  This distinction was earned for the ship's outstanding record in San Francisco during the 2010 season for air emissions reduction, advanced wastewater management, and recycling and disposal programs.  This is the sixth year Princess Cruises has earned this prestigious accolade. Sea Princess is able to “plug in” at the Port of San Francisco since the port’s new shore power facility launched in 2010.  The cruise ship terminal enables Sea Princess, and other equipped vessels, to use power from the city’s grid instead of the engines to power the ship’s onboard services – reducing emissions when docked in San Francisco.  The port became the fourth in the world where Princess Cruises’ ships can take advantage of this innovative technology. “We’re gratified that our environmental efforts are being recognized in San Francisco again, especially since we’ve been able to utilize our shore power technology at the port’s new facility,” said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises executive vice president.  “We’re committed to doing our part to help ensure that pristine and beautiful ports like San Francisco stay that way.” The Port of San Francisco’s “Cruise Ship Environmental Award” is an annual award designed to recognize cruise ships that exceed existing environmental regulations and industry standards to achieve greater protection of the air and water quality of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Introduced in 2005, the award is given each year to individual cruise ships that call four times or more at the Port of San Francisco and demonstrate their commitment to safeguarding the environment  The awards are traditionally presented in the summer to recognize the past year’s cruise season, and Princess Cruises ships have won one or more awards every year. Sea Princess is based in San Francisco for the summer, cruising on 10-day roundtrip Alaska cruises.   Princess Cruises is committed to environmental practices which set a high standard for excellence and responsibility, and which help preserve the marine environment in which its ships operate.  The company’s environmental goals and policies go beyond what is required by law and include a zero solid waste discharge policy, state-of-the-art environmental technology and waste management equipment, programs to minimize waste generated, and recycling where possible.  The company also pioneered the use of shore power programs in the cruise industry to reduce air emissions.

From “Cruise Industry News”,  26 August 2011

2010: Year Of Significant Decreases in Air Pollution at Port of Los Angeles

Facilitating cargo movement while generating less pollution, the Port of Los Angeles continues to make green growth a reality. New data released this week shows that the Port has significantly cut emissions from cargo-handling operations between 2005 and 2010, including a 69 percent reduction in diesel particulate matter (DPM) even as cargo volumes rose by 5 percent during the same period.

“The air quality in the L.A. Harbor is improving as a result of the substantial investments by the Port, its tenants and other Port-related businesses have made in recent years by purchasing cleaner equipment and participating in a variety of emission-reduction initiatives,” said Port Executive Director Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D. “Despite the challenging economy these past several years, our Port and local industry have worked hard to continue lowering emissions, and the five-year report card shows that our collective efforts are paying off.”

On a per-unit-of-cargo basis, the Port’s newly released 2010 Inventory of Air Emissions shows sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions per 10,000 TEUs have plummeted 76 percent and diesel particulate matter (DPM) emissions and related pollutants (PM10, and PM2.5)) have dropped 71 percent since the first inventory in 2005. Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions have fallen 52 percent, carbon monoxide (CO) 48 percent, and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions 45 percent since the baseline year. DPM is an identified toxic air contaminant and known carcinogen, and NOx and SOx are key components of smog.

Reducing emissions on a per-unit-of-cargo basis is a key objective of the Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP). When it adopted the CAAP in 2006, the Port pledged not only to reduce overall emissions but to make sure that each ton of cargo would be moved with fewer emissions in coming years. That way, even if cargo volumes continue to rise, total port-related air pollution decline. The emissions inventory is one of the most important ways the Port measures progress toward CAAP goals.

Even on a year-to-year basis, the 2010 inventory shows impressive progress. Air emissions associated with cargo handling operations at the Port of Los Angeles shows DPM emissions down by 39 percent from 2009, NOx emissions down by 25 percent, and SOx emissions down by 45 percent. Other pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, CO, and HC) showed similar declines compared to 2009. The decrease comes despite a 16 percent increase in the amount of cargo handled at the Port compared to 2009. View the 2010 Air Quality Report Card here.

When linked to a fixed amount of cargo, the decreases are even more dramatic: DPM emissions per 10,000 TEUs of cargo handled dropped 47 percent in just one year, from 1,320 pounds in 2009 to 700 pounds in 2010, SOx emissions dropped by 53 percent, and PM10 and PM 2.5 dropped by 47 percent. The other pollutants in the inventory dropped almost as much: NOx by 36 percent, carbon monoxide by 35 percent, and hydrocarbons by 30 percent.

The emissions inventory uses actual records of activity by ships, trucks, trains, cranes, and other yard equipment; data on the types and ages of the equipment; and up-to-date information on emissions factors for the various engines to calculate the actual amount of emissions produced by port activities over the year. The technique was developed in cooperation with the South Coast AQMD and the California Air Resources Board to ensure accuracy and consistency with the inventory techniques used by those agencies in other applications.

“This is the second straight year we have achieved dramatic reductions in every emissions category,” said Knatz, who cited the state’s clean fuel requirements for vessels, the San Pedro Bay Vessel Speed Reduction (VSR) program and the huge reduction in truck emissions resulting from the Port’s Clean Truck Program (CTP) as key factors in the unprecedented decline in pollution stemming from port-related operations since the start of the CAAP.

Additionally, emissions reductions have resulted from the millions of dollars the Port has spent retrofitting cargo handling equipment and harbor craft engines with pollution control devices, and pioneering the use of alternative fuels and power systems. New State air quality regulations also have helped slash emissions from the big diesel engines that power the movement of cargo at the Port.

From "Cruise Industry News" 18 August 2011

Marine Conservation Institute Announces 2011 Tegner Awards

The Marine Conservation Institute has announced the recipients of the 2011 Mia J. Tegner Memorial Research Grants in Marine Environmental History and Historical Marine Ecology. Funded through a partnership between Marine Conservation Institute and Holland America Line, this grant program is one of the first of its kind to support efforts to study past ocean conditions.

The 2011 Mia J. Tegner Memorial Research Grant Recipients are:
• Yulia Ivashchenko, National Marine Mammal Laboratory: “Soviet illegal whaling in the North Pacific: reconstructing catches, preserving memories.”
• Dr. Merry Camhi, Wildlife Conservation Society: “A four-century retrospective of marine fauna and fisheries around New York City.”
• Shaleyla Kelez, Duke University: “Historical baseline of diversity and abundance of Peruvian marine mega-vertebrates to disentangle climate from fisheries effects.”
• Telmo Morato, Universidade dos Açores: “The historical impacts of fishing on seamount ecosystems: Applying an Ecosystem Evaluation Framework for seamount ecology, fisheries and conservation.”

“We are proud to be advancing the science of marine conservation biology and historical marine ecology by supporting these efforts to better understand the history of our oceans,” said Dr. Lance Morgan, Vice President of Science at Marine Conservation Institute. He noted that this year there were an especially large number of deserving projects. “We received proposals from applicants to fund work in areas ranging from Antarctica to the North Atlantic, and the four projects we funded will help establish historical baselines of past ocean and coastal environments to inform conservation and management.

“I am impressed with the passion and dedication of these researchers whose work covers a wide variety of marine ecosystems and animals,” said Richard Meadows, executive vice president, marketing, sales and guest programs, Holland America Line. “I am proud that Holland America Line can help support several important research programs again in 2011. Their work is very important to our planet.”

The grant program is a tribute to Dr. Mia J. Tegner, a marine biologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who died in January 2001 while diving off the Southern California coast. Dr. Tegner studied the ecology of kelp forest communities and abalone populations, and was particularly interested in understanding how marine populations and ecosystems have changed as a result of human activities. The Mia J. Tegner Program was established in 2001 to support the efforts of promising young scientists and graduate students to document the composition and abundance of ocean life before large-scale human alterations. This information is essential for helping policy-makers, law-makers, regulators, managers and conservationists set appropriate targets for marine conservation efforts.

The 2011 grants were made possible by a generous donation by Holland America Line. The funding is an extension of “Our Marvelous Oceans,” a three-year program announced by the two partners in 2010. The partnership also includes guest and staff education, support for marine conservation biology research, and the recent creation of a sustainable seafood program with environmentally responsible purchasing practices and menus that showcase sustainable seafood.

From “Cruise Industry News”, 5 August 2011