Bay Club Marina's Sustainable New Dock System

Shelley Griffin, Dockmaster at Bay Club Marina writes:

I am so excited to be a part of the Green Business Challenge.  I jumped at the chance as soon as I found out about it.  Knowing that San Diego is the first American port city to participate in this exciting challenge, The Bay Club is honored to be a part of it.  San Diego is one of the most beautiful waterfront cities in the world.  It is important for all businesses and individuals to do their part to protect this beautiful and fragile environment.  It has been not only fun trying to strategize going green but also rewarding and challenging!

We recently completed an intensive makeover which included replacing our old dock system with one constructed from both recycled and recyclable materials. The new dock is the first marina of its kind on the West Coast. One hundred percent recyclable aluminum was used to build the dock structure and its deck system is made from post-consumer recycled polyethylene – a high density product originating from milk jugs, plastic grocery bags, pallet wraps and detergent bottles.

Believe it or not, the green dock system we installed was more cost effective than concrete docks! The docks are extremely low maintenance which will save on man hours and repair costs.

 We have been so lucky to have so much press on this new green dock system.  I think most of the marine industry is aware of the system now.  We invited quite a few marine industry professionals to our grand opening and ribbon cutting.   We were featured on the Port of San Diego’s website, on the American Association of Port Authorities Website, on the Blue Sky News website,  the Log Newspaper, The Marina Recreation Association Newsletter, Marina Dock Age Magazine and the prestigious international magazine Marina World published in the UK.  We are looking forward to more press coming in The Changing Tide which is published by the Department of Boating and Waterways & California Coastal Commission.

The interest in the new docks has been overwhelming.  Everyone has fallen in love with our dock system, and our wait list has grown too!  This just proves that people really do want to “go green” and have a love for the environment. I have been giving daily tours to passerbys, and I always include all of the marina’s green features as I’m giving a tour.  One of my favorite things to show people when they come to our docks (other than the docks of course) are the new sustainable plants.  This might not seem like much but we used to have many high maintenance plants and flowers that the staff and tenants would have to take care of  and water constantly.  These beautiful new succulents only have to be watered twice a month! (see photo) We also installed energy efficient LED lighting.  These lights use 1kilowatt-hour as opposed to the 20 kilowatt-hours the previous fluorescent lights used.  We’ve replaced most of the fluorescent lighting in the hotel with energy efficient bulbs as well.

Our challenge right now is to get LEED certified.  This will take some time.  We would like for the hotel to be LEED certified along with the marina.  This could be a challenge since the marina is new and the hotel is 25 years old.  But that won’t stop us!

It’s not as hard as you might think to go green!  Start off with small stuff like recycling paper, aluminum and glass and work towards larger goals like energy star certification.  Get your employees involved.  Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes and ears can go a long way with ‘green’ suggestions!

To learn more about Bay Club Marina's new one of a kind dock system view the Port of San Diego's Press Release.