Program History

In 2005, Clean Air Council was awarded a CARE (Community Action for a Renewed Environment) planning grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to evaluate environmental issues in land, air, and water at Philadelphia ports.  The Council subsequently created a stakeholder process and has since worked with port officials, port operators, community leaders, and others to identify pollution issues and potential solutions at more than a dozen Philadelphia-area ports

In January 2006, Council staff began meeting with Philadelphia port operators to discuss their role in efforts to work towards a cleaner port.  Operators were slow to agree to such meetings, believing that any participation would be followed by the scrutiny of regulators and a list of clean-up requirements.  Individual port operators did finally agree to the Council’s invitation to speak over lunch.  During these meetings, the operators presented themselves as generally welcoming and willing to consider environmental issues. 

In May 2006, Clean Air Council, working with EPA, hosted the Mid Atlantic Clean Ports Workshop, the first event of its kind in the region.  Designed according to “a peer-to-peer” model, with port operators from across the country talking to local operators about voluntary initiatives to reduce air pollution at the ports, approximately 125 individuals attended the workshop.

They heard how environmental upgrades could actually benefit the bottom line and how the general trend in the industry to “go green” was affecting port operators in a positive way.  The broad goal of convincing local port operators to consider their role as both businesspeople and stewards for the environment was accomplished.  The event succeeded so well, in fact, that local operators have since expressed interest in participating in additional technical education events on a wide range of environmentally-beneficial topics, including diesel retrofits, shore-side electrical power or cold ironing, crane electrification, computerized gate systems and Environmental Management Systems (EMS). 

More concretely, in an announcement of great importance, Greenwich Terminals and Delaware River Stevedores, two large Philadelphia-area port operators, have also now reached formal agreements to undertake diesel retrofit project for their fleets.

Looking ahead into 2008-2009, The Council is prioritizing stormwater management and encouraging port operators to implement Stormwater Best Management Practices, using a similar peer-to-peer, multi-stakeholder process.