Community & Sustainability
Caring about our neighbors
Georgia Ports Authority is committed to conducting port operations in an efficient and environmentally respectful manner. We continually improve our operations and facilities with these goals in mind. See what GPA is doing to reduce emissions and to help our community.
- Creating nine acres of manmade wetlands to treat 100 million gallons of stormwater annually and foster a wildlife habitat in the heart of the nation’s third-busiest gateway for containerized trade.
Manmade wetlands treat stormwater at Garden City Terminal. - Sponsoring the Caretta Research Project, which has released 311,000 loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings into the ocean. GPA has supported the initiative since 2004.
- Implementing a single-stream recycling program that allows for a variety of recyclables, to keep products out of landfills.
- Protecting and maintaining dozens of old growth oak trees. These beautiful trees often live for centuries: One Southern Live Oak located at Garden City Terminal is estimated to be more than 370 years old.
- Coordinating pickup of unusable surplus electronics and disposing of them in an environmentally friendly manner.
- All asphalt resurfacing projects at GPA generate asphalt millings that are reused throughout Garden City Terminal. At Ocean Terminal, demolished concrete slabs are being crushed and reused for pavement subgrades.
- Because GPA is owner-operated and works seamlessly with the International Longshoremen’s Association, wait times for ships arriving at port are minimal. Ample staffing and equipment result in more picks per hour and faster turn times. This results in less idling time and reduced emissions for on-terminal vehicles.
- Converting its fleet of container handling equipment and trucks to ultra-low sulfur diesel, cutting emissions by 10 percent. As a result of this effort, the ports avoid the release of hundreds of tons of nitrogen oxide, carbon emissions and particulate matter into Georgia’s air.
- Electric ship-to-shore cranes have integrated generators to capture power while lowering boxes. In this way, the cranes produce enough energy to power themselves for 18 minutes of each operating hour.
- Using electric refrigerated container racks, with each avoiding the use of 54,000 gallons of diesel annually.
GPA uses new lighting controls and fixtures to reduce energy consumption by up to 60 percent. - Using all-electric rubber-tired gantry cranes at the Appalachian Regional Port. The eRTGs reduce fuel consumption by more than 95 percent per crane. The eRTG program virtually eliminates emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter compared to diesel-powered RTGs.
- Using new lighting controls and light fixtures that reduce light pollution and cut energy consumption by up to 60 percent.
- Reducing truck idling time through automated gates, extended hours and the Port of Savannah’s Cross Terminal Road. The Cross Terminal Road reduced turn times by 8 minutes for thousands of trucks daily.
- Moving freight by rail reduces traffic congestion, energy demand and emissions. The Port of Savannah is the only single terminal operation on the East Coast with on-terminal access to two Class 1 rail lines —Norfolk Southern and CSX. In Fiscal Year 2019, the Port of Savannah handled 507,000 intermodal boxes.
- Retrofitting 11 locomotives operating at the Port of Savannah with automatic engine stop-start (AESS) devices that cut more than 52,000 gallons of diesel consumption and almost 16 tons of emissions each year. The AESS system reduces emissions by powering down the locomotive engine and restarting only when necessary. The project was also funded in part by an EPA Diesel Emissions Reduction Act grant.
- Constructing the Mason Mega Rail Terminal, which is set to open in 2020. The facility will bring all rail switching on terminal, resulting in fewer at-grade crossings. In addition, Norfolk Southern’s lead track will be rerouted through Garden City Terminal, eliminating rail crossings in Garden City.
