Team up to clean up
By Cindy Chan
B
C Ferries is doing its part to keep Mother Earth clean.
This past summer in 2019, hundreds of BC Ferries employees across the province participated in shoreline cleanups to help keep B.C.’s beaches clean. Employees hailing from Haida Gwaii, the Southern Gulf Islands, Northern Gulf Islands, Comox and Campbell River, the Sunshine Coast, Victoria and Metro Vancouver participated by gathering 1,725 kilograms of garbage, which covered 50 kilometres of shoreline.
BC Ferries staff doing their part at Langdale.
According to Captain Jamie Marshall, BC Ferries’ vice-president of business development and innovation, the company has been picking up garbage for a number of years. “We have certification with Green Marine,” Marshall says. Green Marine is an environmental certification program for the North American marine industry, according to its website (green-marine.org). It’s a “voluntary, transparent and inclusive initiative that addresses key environmental issues through its 12 performance indicators. Participants are ship owners, ports, terminals, Seaway corporations and shipyards.”
BC Ferries cleaning up the shoreline on the Tsawwassen Causeway. 16
B.C. Tugboat 2020
In order to receive certification, participants must “benchmark their annual environmental performance through the program’s self-
