Environmentally Smart Transportation – Inland and coastal shipping has tremendous opportunity to grow and support North America's ambitions to deliver both economic and environmental progress. Ships are the most fuel-efficient way to move goods with the least amount of carbon emissions. Ports, terminals, the St. Lawrence Seaway and shipowners are working to further reduce the industry's environmental footprint by investing billions of dollars in new ships and technologies and participating in improvement programs like Green Marine.
Environmental Benefits Study (Executive Summary)
Environmental Benefits Study (Full-Report)
Increasing inland and coastal shipping is part of the solution for climate change.
Due to its unprecedented investment in fleet renewal, CMC's Canadian-flag fleet, on average, can carry one tonne of cargo an incredible 360 kilometres on one litre of fuel. Recent analysis by Research and Traffic Group also shows that due to that fuel efficiency, if rail and truck were to carry the same cargo over the same distance as CMC's fleet, there would be 31 per cent more GHG emissions from rail and 558 per cent more from trucking.
Ships are able to carry vast amounts of cargo in a single trip. Due to this carrying capacity, ships reduce road congestion and highway maintenance costs. It would take 7.1 million truck trips to carry the same amount of cargo that the Great Lakes-Seaway fleet does each year. That would increase existing truck traffic in the range of 35% to 100%, depending on the highway network. If Great Lakes-Seaway marine cargo shifted to trucks, it would lead to $4.6 billion in highway maintenance costs over 60 years.
In the past 10 years, more than $4 billion has been spent to refurbish and build new domestic and ocean-going vessels for the region that have the latest engine technology and hull designs to increase fuel efficiency and decrease air emissions; double hulls to prevent spills in the event of an accident, and state-of-the-art cargo handling systems to minimize dust and cargo residue. Find out more >
Advancing Green Shipping
Marine shipping goes beyond its regulatory obligations to voluntarily improve all aspects of its footprint through the Green Marine environmental certification program. Ports, terminals, shipowners, Seaway corporations and shipyards undertake concrete and measurable actions to address 12 key environmental issues ranging from air emissions, waste management and ballast water to mammal protection and noise pollution. To receive their certification, participants must benchmark their annual environmental performance through the program's exhaustive self-evaluation guides, have their results verified by an accredited external verifier and agree to publication of their individual results. Find out more >
Tough Protections Against Invasive Species
The marine industry is committed to reducing, and eventually eliminating, the role it plays in the movement of aquatic nuisance species. Today, the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Seaway System has the most stringent ballast water management and inspection regulations in the world. Since the latest measures were introduced in 2006, no new aquatic nuisance species have been discovered in the Great Lakes due to shipping. International regulations now require the installation of ballast water treatment technology aboard all ocean-going vessels. Find out more >