Fincantieri Marinette Marine recognized for Green Marine certification

Rachel Sankey

Past Staff

July 29, 2024

MARINETTE – At Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM), a shipbuilding company based in Northeast Wisconsin, Environmental Engineer Makayla Jacobs said, “we do the best we can to protect the environment.”

That’s why, Jacobs said, FMM started work on its Green Marine certification in 2022.

“(Information about Green Marine certification) came across a newsletter in our emails…,” she said. “I showed my boss, and I was like, ‘wow, this seems cool. This is something we should get into to show the public that Fincantieri Marinette Marine is green.’”

After receiving the go-ahead from her boss, Jacobs said she began the certification process for FMM.

According to Green Marine’s website (green-marine.org), the North American environmental certification program’s goal is to “guide the maritime industry toward environmental excellence,” which Jacobs said directly aligns with FMM’s ethics to continually be environmentally friendly.

This year, Jacobs said she traveled to Nova Scotia, Canada, for Green Marine’s annual conference, where FMM was recognized for graduating to Level 3 of the waste management section in the certification process.

But what does that mean?

The certification process

To receive the initial Green Marine certification, Jacobs said FMM had to reach Level 1 in each of the necessary categories.

For shipyards, such as FMM, that means earning certification in:

• Air emissions-greenhouse gasses
• Community impacts and relations
• Environmental leadership
• Spill prevention and stormwater management
• Waste management

“There’s a whole bunch of different categories,” she said.

Other performance indicators listed on Green Marine’s website businesses have to meet – such as ship owners and ports, include:

• Air emissions – NOx, SOx and PM
• Aquatic ecosystems
• Aquatic invasive species
• Dry bulk handling and storage
• Oily discharge
• Ship recycling
• Underwater noise

Each of these performance indicators has five levels, and after receiving Level 1 certification in all the necessary categories, Jacobs said businesses have to recertify annually. 

Doing so, she said, means moving up a level in at least one of the indicators.

For example, Jacobs said if FMM would not have reached Level 3 in waste management or have gone up a level in either greenhouse gas emissions, community impacts or relations, environmental leadership or spill prevention and stormwater management, it would have lost its certification completely.

“Then, every two to three years, you have to go through an external audit by a Green Marine auditor,” she said. 

FMM’s green initiatives

When first going through the process to become Green Marine certified, Jacobs said FMM was “already doing a lot of what they wanted you to do.”

Fincantieri, she said, was originally established in Italy in 1959, and “Italy is big on sustainability.”

“We already have a bunch of sustainable initiatives, but when we started Green Marine, we implemented drain guards,” Jacobs said.

Drain guards, she said, are trash guards that go into stormwater outlets and collect trash from entering waterways. 

Jacobs said FMM also implemented the Lucy the Walleye program – which is a walleye symbol “we post around the shipyard reminding people about water pollution and water conservation.”

“We also implemented Duke the duck – we have a little farm going on here,” she laughed. “Duke the duck is our air pollution symbol. He’s on all of our vehicles, forklifts and cranes. He reminds people (to) shut off your forklift if you’re not in it – that way, you’re not putting all these emissions into the air.”

Essentially, Jacobs said FMM started “by implementing a bunch of small projects to build up to “one big project we’re doing.”

“We’re also working on energy conservation – that’s a way bigger project,” she said. 

An important endeavor

As a company that is located on a river (the Menominee River), Jacobs said it’s important for FMM to promote that it is doing everything it can to help keep its waterways and air clean and to protect the environment. 

“When people think of shipyards, I’m sure they think it’s ‘maybe a little dirty,’ or ‘maybe they’re air polluting,’” she said. “But we do go above and beyond for our sustainable initiatives – we are a clean shipyard.”

Regardless if it’s a shipbuilding company or not, Jacobs said it’s important for businesses to implement green initiatives because “sustainability is needed to preserve our planet.”

“For our kids, their kids and their kids,” she said. “It’s important we start protecting our earth’s ecosystem so the planet doesn’t get destroyed by everything we do. I think sustainability is something every company should focus on.”

Even if it’s something small, Jacobs said, every effort is important.

“The small changes matter, too,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be outrageous changes – but we must start looking into… our carbon emissions and how much we’re producing.”

Though Jacobs said FMM is proud to have reached Level 3 in waste management, she said the company is already working toward its next level up: Air pollution (Level 3).

“We have some things in the works when it comes to energy,” she said. “We have an energy audit coming up, and we have a bunch of initiatives for our air hoses and trying to stop our compressors from running so much.”

A triad of sustainable efforts

In addition to FMM’s recent certification, its counterparts – Fincantieri Ace Marine (FAM) in Green Bay and Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding (FBS) in Sturgeon Bay – are also in the Green Marine program.

“(FAM) does its own thing, and then (FBS) does its own thing as well, but they are in the Green Marine program,” she said. “They’re doing different initiatives to gain those levels.”

FAM reached Level 3 designation for air emissions-greenhouse gasses, while FBS is in the early stages of the certification process.