Environmental Stewardship

Ship Design Features

From an internal water ballast system to double hull construction, TOTE has led the field in developing forward-thinking design features into new ships.

TOTE's ORCA ships were also designed with the environment foremost in mind, with features such as:

• Double hull fuel compartments
• State-of-the-art sewage treatment
• Shoreside trash disposal
• Fuel efficient, reduced emissions diesel electric system
• Fresh water ballast system with no discharge to the environment
• Navigation and propulsion system redundancy
• Shoreside cold ironing capabilities

As a result, TOTE’s Orca Class vessels have received numerous awards for their innovative environmental designs.

Ship Cold Ironing

Whenever ships are at the dock in Tacoma, they are plugged into the shore side electrical grid. This reduces ship emissions and allows TOTE to use “greener” power while the ships are at the dock.

Running ship systems on shore power when they are in port is known as “cold ironing,” a phrase that has its roots in the old-time practice of coal-burning ships shutting down boilers while in port, allowing their iron power plants to become cold. The TOTE terminal in Tacoma is the first cargo terminal on Puget Sound to initiate the practice.

Cold ironing means that the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from the terminal is reduced by about 2,600 tons each year.

To learn more about TOTE’s cold ironing program, please contact us.

Rain Gardens

In 2011, concerned with stormwater runoff at the Tacoma terminal, TOTE employees created bioswales, or landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface water runoff.

TOTE's terminal hosts the first industrial rain gardens in South Sound, and will treat over a quarter million gallons of stormwater each year.

The Tacoma rain gardens pick up zinc from galvanized metal surfaces on terminal buildings, and copper from brake dust and other pollutants. Rain water is channeled to the rain gardens, where the soil and plants filter the water, holding the pollutants while the excess water, now cleaner, finds its way to to Commencement Bay. Without the rain gardens, polluted water was discharged directly in to the Bay.

Filtering out heavy metals helps TOTE meet their stormwater permit requirements and protects wild salmon. Several partners and sponsors made the project possible, including more than 75 volunteers who helped plant 800 plants.