By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTA cleaner environment has become a major concern of seaports around the United States. While some ports have implemented voluntarily efforts to address and develop “green” port policies, others are slow to adopt such measures. Nevertheless, all are aware that eventually they will face a regulatory environment whereby ports will be required to adopt a clean air plan, program or strategy. In its effort to be ahead of the curve, the Port of Seattle recently released port-commissioned study that officials their justify ports within the Puget Sound to be a “Green Gateway.” Conducted by Herbert Engineering—a ship design, engineering, and transportation consulting firm – the study analyzed the carbon footprints of trade routes between Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and the US distribution hubs of Chicago, Columbus and Memphis. “We looked at ship sizes, routes, options for shipment handling, and what happens if a shipment comes to various ports,” remarks Wayne Trotheer, who is in charge of the port’s technical services. “Based on what we concluded, cargo coming from most places in Asia to most places in the United States can achieve the lowest carbon footprint by coming through ports in the Pacific Northwest.” That’s because not only are the ports there closer to Asia than any other seaports on the US West Coast (meaning shorter ocean transit times), shipments consume much less fuel because they can be transported by rail from Seattle to key distribution points in Chicago and Columbus, Ohio as opposed to all-water routes through the Panama Canal to US East Coast ports. “But there’s more to our strategy to cut carbon emissions than geography,” Trotheer states. The port has implemented ongoing sustainability initiatives that have created a “Green Gateway” that is good for the environment and port customers. Its focus is on ships, cargo handling equipment, trains, and trucks. For example, the Port of Seattle has retrofitted nearly 200 pieces of cargo handling equipment on its marine terminals with emissions reducing devices and switched to biodiesel, low-sulfur diesel, or a blend of the two. All cargo-handling equipment at the Port of Tacoma runs on ultra-low-sulfur diesel or biodiesel. In January 2009, the Port of Seattle and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) implemented the At-berth Clean Fuels (ABC Fuels) program that provides incentives for container ship operators to use low sulfur fuel (0.5 percent or less) while the vessels are docked in Seattle. As of April 2009, six carriers have signed up for the program (Maersk Line, CMA CGM, APL, Matson Navigation, Hapag Lloyd and Norwegian Cruise Line). Several others are considering participation. ABC Fuels is expected to reduce emissions of particulate matter from participating ships by 60 percent and sulfur dioxide by 95 percent. More than half of the ships that call frequently at the Port of Tacoma voluntarily burn cleaner, low sulfur distillate fuels while docked in Tacoma. To address trucks, in April of this year, the Port of Seattle Commission approved a plan to reduce emissions from trucks that serve the port. The port’s plan calls for prohibiting the most polluting trucks (1994 model-year and older) from entering port terminals beginning January 1, 2011, in keeping with the 2010 standard of the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy. Approximately 1,200 trucks (more than 75 percent of the fleet calling regularly at the Port of Seattle) meet that standard already. The program will include measures to scrap the old trucks, compensate truck owners for their older trucks, and help them buy or lease newer ones. On the rail side, BNSF Railway Co., which handles most of the port’s rail freight, operates four wide-span, electric, rail-mounted gantry cranes in their intermodal facility at the port. “It has the first electric rail mounted overhead gantry cranes used in the United States,” Trotheer says. “Not only do these cranes nearly double their throughput in that yard, they d