3 minute read
Team up to clean up
BC Ferries staff doing their part at Langdale.
By Cindy Chan
BC 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.
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.”
In order to receive certification, participants must “benchmark their annual environmental performance through the program’s self-
evaluation guides, have their results verified by an accredited external verifier and agree to publication of their individual results.”
Out of the 133 Green Marine participants, BC Ferries is one of only three to certify three types of activities: vessels, terminals and shipyard. Being certified means reducing BC Ferries’ environmental footprint and cleaning up the areas it operates in, says Marshall.
“Our employees volunteer on an annual basis. Last year, we had 300 employees cleaning up over 50 kilometres from Haida Gwaii down to as far as Victoria,” Marshall recalls. “Our employees love doing this.”
The cleanup took place over a period of several days.
“We’ve got 30 beaches that we’ve picked and co-ordinated with other organizations, such as Wilson’s Group of Companies, Destination Greater Victoria and the Nicholas Sonntag Marine Education Centre,” Marshall says.
Employees were given a pair of gloves to wear with which to pick up garbage, or they used gardening gloves. They were encouraged to bring buckets to pick up the garbage as to not use more plastic.
Marshall says his team picked up all sorts of garbage, ranging from car parts to sleeping bags.
“It’s amazing what people throw out,” he says. “We’ve gone to the same beaches over the years, and it’s surprising to find stuff that you cleaned up a year ago.”
In addition to cleaning up parts of the province, BC Ferries also benefited from the team-building aspect of the event. Marshall says it’s an opportunity for employees who have never worked together to spend the day getting to know one another and give back to the communities they serve. Ü
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