Page 20: of Marine News Magazine (November 2023)

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Column

Sustainability

Navigating Sustainability:

Charting a Way Forward

By Jennifer Carpenter, President & CEO, The American Waterways Operators

You can feel it in the air, lenge. The Task Force’s recommendations, approved by and increasingly on the water: a steady increase in momen- AWO’s Board earlier this year, aim to ensure that the tug- tum toward a global economy that prioritizes sustainabil- boat, towboat and barge industry has a prominent seat at ity. Government stakeholders at all levels, and shipping the table in the ongoing national and global sustainability customers across industries, are setting ambitious goals conversation, and that we are well positioned to advance and high expectations for environmental performance, positive outcomes and defend against proposals that would and that includes the transportation of U.S. and global limit or disadvantage the industry. commerce on the waterways. As an industry, we have an extremely positive sustain-

For the tugboat, towboat and barge industry, which ability story to tell policymakers, industry customers and moves nearly 700 million tons of cargo on America’s riv- the public today: the story of a single dry cargo barge that ers, coastal waters and Great Lakes annually, it’s both an can move as much cargo as 16 rail cars or 70 trucks; of ves- exciting and challenging time. How does an industry as sels that emit over 40% less carbon than rail and over 800% geographically and operationally diverse as ours, made up less than trucks; of our industry’s substantial investment in of companies ranging from large, publicly traded corpora- repowering vessels to improve engine performance, which tions to family-owned multi-generation small businesses, has slashed emissions by more than 15% since 2005; of navigate this profoundly disruptive sustainability land- our central role in the development of U.S. offshore wind scape in a way that’s good for the environment and for the energy; and of an industry embracing innovation by em- bottom line? ploying new technologies to reduce fuel consumption, im-

It was this question that led AWO’s Board of Directors to prove vessel performance, and run on alternative fuels. establish the CEO-level Sustainability Task Force, a group We need to tell this positive story far and wide, because of leaders from across our industry focused on developing our existing advantages over other modes, demonstrated a strategy to address the various dimensions of this chal- commitment to continuous improvement, and unique position of having greater capacity for expansion than truck or rail, mean that waterways transport represents low-hanging fruit for shippers seeking to reduce their own environmental footprint. Public policies that support and encourage greater use of the most ef? cient and sustainable mode of freight transport would enable the U.S. to reduce transportation emissions overall, as the Biden Administra- tion’s interagency blueprint for transportation decarbon- ization has recognized.

We also need public policy – and investment – to maxi- mize the ef? ciency, capacity and resiliency of the marine transportation system. That includes investing in mod- © Aaron Kohr / Adobe Stock 20 | MN November 2023