The ThunderBlogs

Port Metro Vancouver is on a mission to make Vancouver’s port more sustainable. They have made the cruise industry one of their focal points, but visitors are hard pressed to see a lot of sustainable practices.

On the last weekend of the summer, the busiest cruise day of the season, visitors and locals flooded the cruise terminal at Canada Place. People disembarked after their cruises to Alaska. They looked relaxed and content from a week at sea. Many stayed close to the terminal, filled coffee shops and bought souvenirs. Some wandered the upper level of terminal. They snapped pictures of the boat they had just departed and waved to the new passengers getting set to leave.

Down at water level Holland America’s Zuiderdam was plugged into the terminal’s shore power system. Shore power is one of the key sustainability initiatives by Port Metro Vancouver. It allows ships to plug into a power supply at the terminal so the diesel engines can be shut off while in port. Shore power was implemented in 2009 in partnership with Princess Cruise lines, Holland America, B.C. Hydro, the Province of B.C. and the Government of Canada. Canada Place is one of only three ports of call in North America using shore power. Unfortunately, the cruise ships require a retrofit to be able to use the system so the system is in limited use. 58 shore power connections were made in the 2010 cruise season.

There were seven cruise ships in and out of Vancouver’s harbour on the busiest cruise weekend of the year and the Zuiderdam was the only ship to use shore power.

This is where the contradictions in the port begin. Port Metro Vancouver can point to their sustainable achievements: shore power, participation in the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy and the Globe 2010 ecoFreight Award for Sustainable Transportation. But closer inspection reveals a sadder reality. At the moment all the sustainability initiatives are overshadowed by the larger environmental impacts of the port system.

While onlookers waved and smiled as the ships departed Sunday afternoon another oil tanker sailed out of the harbour. The oil tanker is one of approximately 100 that will leave Vancouver’s port over the next 12 months full of oil destined for Asia. The footprint associated with all that oil far outweighs the use of shore power as an environmental protection.

Everyone who mingled about Sunday afternoon ignored the ship’s smoke stacks that billowed thick black smog in the air. They discussed the beautiful ships and the amazing scenery of Vancouver’s inner harbour while neglecting to notice the sulfur piles and toxic chemical terminals across the water. All they saw was a beautiful ship in a beautiful harbour, the environmental impact of that 82,000 ton, 300 metre long, 1,900 passenger ship made very little impact on their psyche.