Port Initiatives
Community relations now a part of Green Marine’s environmental framework BY JULIE GEDEON
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reen Marine has added community relations to the issues that ports and terminals will have to address to be certified by the environmental program. “We already had a landside indicator to deal with noise, dust and other community impacts,” says David Bolduc, Green Marine’s executive director, “but members wanted an indicator to specifically assess their dialogue and social acceptability with neighbouring communities.” The issue has gained prominence as more people become concerned with ecological preservation as well as seek to live or leisure in waterfront areas once solely occupied by industrial activities. Green Marine has consulted extensively over the past two years with representatives of the maritime industry, government, communities, environmental organizations, as well as field experts to elucidate the issue and determine effective responses. “This indicator posed unique challenges,” shares Véronique Trudeau, Green Marine’s program manager. “Outcomes aren’t readily measurable as, let’s say, a reduction in stormwater runoff with the installation of a new collection/drainage system.” Significant discussion went into simply agreeing on a definition of communities. “We also talked extensively about how ports and terminals determine their relevant community stakeholders, communicate information, and obtain feedback,” Trudeau adds. Experts in community engagement provided key insights. “For instance, we learnt that our goal should never be to change people’s minds,” Trudeau explains, “but rather to facilitate information exchange and discussion opportunities so differing opinions can be expressed and genuinely considered.”
Green Marine has established tangible benchmarks for each of the program’s five increasingly demanding performance tiers. The Level 2 criteria include providing a phone service for comments/complaints, maintaining up-to-date contact information for local stakeholders, regularly monitoring media posts about the port’s or terminal’s activities, and using at least two well-established means to communicate information. At Level 3, a port must fulfil at least three major criteria that range from identifying potential future collaborative opportunities with already identified stakeholders, to implementing a documented communications strategy, to participating in annual environmental community events. Level 4 requires participants to achieve several goals that involve meeting at least twice yearly with community representatives, becoming actively involved in an organization unrelated to the participant’s activities, and developing a communication process to make it easy to pose questions. At Level 5, a participant has to assess a community’s perceptions over the previous three years and take active steps to improve relations. Or collaborate on a new joint project/initiative. “Our membership recognizes that to maintain social license, it’s increasingly necessary to establish and maintain strong two-way communication, as well as engage in a meaningful way in a local society’s overall well-being and brighter future,” Bolduc says. As with all new indicators, community relations indicator is optional for the first year (i.e. 2021 reporting) but mandatory thereafter. n
VÉRONIQUE TRUDEAU GREEN MARINE, PROGRAM MANAGER
EXPERTS IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROVIDED KEY INSIGHTS. “FOR INSTANCE, WE LEARNT THAT OUR GOAL SHOULD NEVER BE TO CHANGE PEOPLE’S MINDS,” TRUDEAU EXPLAINS, “BUT RATHER TO FACILITATE INFORMATION EXCHANGE AND DISCUSSION OPPORTUNITIES.”
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