Air

The Greenest Port Starts with the Bluest Skies

Seaport: Keep on trucking…but how?
As the founding member of the Puget Sound Maritime Air Forum, a partnership of maritime agencies and industry, the Port of Seattle has made great strides toward reducing the toxic risks in our region’s air that result from diesel-fueled sources.

"The maritime industry has many different players, so one of our challenges was to figure out how much diesel in the area is from maritime sources," said Stephanie Jones-Stebbins, senior manager of the Seaport Environmental Program. "We found that 28 percent in the area comes from maritime sources, such as ships, trains, tugboats and trucks." READ MORE…

NW Ports Clean Air Strategy
Adopted by the Port of Seattle Commission on January 20, 2008, the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy is intended to improve the environment, public health and regional economy by reducing diesel particulate and greenhouse gas emissions from port operations in advance of, and complementary to, government regulation.

In a cross-border, collaborative process led by the ports of Seattle and Tacoma in Washington state, and Port Metro in British Columbia, the strategy sets short-term (2010) and long-term (2015) performance measures for five broad categories of maritime emissions sources -- ocean-going vessels, harbor vessels, trucks, rail and cargo-handling equipment.

The strategy outlines a range of practical actions the ports and their partners can take to achieve the performance measures, many of which are already underway. To ensure accountability, the ports will use environmental management system (EMS) principles on measurement, verification and reporting.

The ports worked with each other and with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Environment Canada, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology. The voluntary cooperation across international borders is unprecedented.



At-berth Clean Fuels
The At-Berth Clean Fuels Vessel Incentive (ABC) program is a pilot project designed to encourage vessel operators to use cleaner fuels while calling at Port of Seattle terminals. For shipping lines that have five or more calls to the port, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency provides a $1,500 incentive per call when at-berth ships use fuel that is five times cleaner than the standard marine bunker fuel. The first vessel to participate, the Matson Manoa, arrived in port on January 2^nd. Five lines are now participating: Matson, APL, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA-CGM, Maersk and Norwegian.

Climate Registry
Port of Seattle is one of four U.S. ports to become a founding reporter of The Climate Registry, a non-profit organization that supports voluntary and mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reporting and verification. Through this commitment the Port is providing meaningful information to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and supporting The Climate Registry in its initial formation.

The State of Washington is one of seven states and two Canadian provinces collaborating in the Western Climate Initiative, developing market-based strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. WCI partners agree that these strategies will rely heavily on the kind of reporting infrastructure currently under design by TCR.

First Greenhouse Gas Inventory
In 2008, Sea-Tac Airport made available the nation’s first comprehensive airport greenhouse gas inventories, accounting for all airport-related emissions including aircraft, ground transportation, and port sources. The inventory will inform future greenhouse gas reduction efforts and the airport’s Climate Action Plan. The Port Commission set a new precedent in directing staff to work with airport stakeholders toward voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

Banking Airport Emission Reduction Credits
Sea-Tac Airport has “banked” its first emission reduction credits with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency by establishing a fuel hydrant system, replacing fuel tanker trucks with a fuel pipeline to the airline gates. By taking responsibility associated with fuel system emissions, Sea-Tac was able to document the voluntary emission reductions for the suite of traditional pollutants, as well as carbon dioxide, banking credits for nearly 1,000 tons of CO2 in the first year. Sea-Tac can use the credits at a later time. For example, if a future projects has impacts on air quality, the banked emissions help to off-set those impacts.

Third Runway Emission Savings
Emission savings attributed to the third runway’s opening are significant. Reducing aircraft delays by half means 50,000 tons less of CO2 every year. That’s like taking 10,000 cars off the road. It also means there’s less of the traditional pollution too, helping to keep our region’s air clean.

CNG and more
In 2008 Sea-Tac Airport despensed over a million gallons of compressed natural gas. Low CO₂ emitting CNG fuels a significant portion of the Port's buses, cars and heavy equipment. The Sea-Tac CNG station is open to the public and is used by airport taxis, shuttles and other public and private vehicles. With a fleet purchasing policy that prescribes the use of high mileage and alternatively-fueled vehicles, we are making a difference, and you can too. If you happen to have a plug-in electric vehicle, you can use one of the Port's five charging stations in the airport garage to recharge your batteries on your next trip.

Energy Harvesting
Sea-Tac is investigating better ways to use the natural energy around us. In a new pilot program, the airport is installing several wind turbines on the office building to evaluate the feasibility of harnessing wind energy. Other studies will look at geo-thermal and solar projects, so the airport will be ready to take advantage of new technologies as they become available. In the meantime, Sea-Tac invests in renewable energy (using 25% renewable electricity) to supplement the 97% hydro-based energy purchased by the airport.