VICTORIA – From the shores of Salt Spring Island to Horseshoe Bay, from the Sunshine Coast to Campbell River, hundreds of BC Ferries’ employees participated in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup from July 6 – 16 to help keep B.C. beaches pristine.
With more than 275 staff volunteering to help in over 20 separate cleanup events, BC Ferries is one of the largest corporate teams in B.C. to partake in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Such strong participation demonstrates the employees’ desire to do their part for the environment and help to keep our oceans clean.
“As BC Ferries operates in a marine environment, our involvement in the shoreline cleanup is a natural fit,” said Corrine Storey, BC Ferries’ Vice President of Customer Services. “Our employees collected well over 1,500 kilograms of debris from the shorelines in and around the communities in which we operate. A few of the unusual items collected include a broken kayak, a shopping cart and a baby stroller.”
Reducing its environmental footprint is a big priority for BC Ferries. The three Salish-Class vessels currently under construction will be dual-fuel, so they can operate on natural gas. The two Spirit-Class vessels are going to be converted to dual-fuel, so that they will run on this cleaner fuel source also. Using natural gas is anticipated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15-25 per cent, sulphur oxides (SOx) by over 85 per cent and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by over 50 per cent.
To illustrate its commitment to the marine mammals off our coast, BC Ferries was the first ferry operator in Canada to develop a policy and best management practices around the operation of vessels in the presence of marine mammals.
This policy has been adopted by both Washington State Ferries and Alaska Marine Highway System. BC Ferries also records cetacean sightings through the BC Cetacean Sightings Network, which helps researchers fill data gaps on seasonal distributions of our coastal cetacean species.
BC Ferries is dedicated to safeguarding the environment and was recently recognized at the annual Green Marine conference as a top performer. Out of 100 participants, the company was recognized for achieving eight levels of improvement in performance indicators over last year’s evaluation. BC Ferries joined Green Marine in late 2014 and was certified by an independent verifier in May 2015. Green Marine is a globally recognized, voluntary, industry sustainability initiative for ship operators, ports, terminals and shipyards.
