Tay Yashitani, who has been chief executive officer of the Port of Seattle for six months, wants to make Seattle the "cleanest and greenest" port in the nation and then use its eco-friendly image for competitive advantage.

"Cleaning up the environment is a worthy goal in and of itself," he said, but going green is proving to be good business too. The challenge is to figure out ways to use the Port's commitment to pollution clean-up to gain "new leverage," he added.

Yashitani was guest speaker at the Sept. 12 West Seattle Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Salty's on Alki.

"It goes beyond doing the right thing," he told West Seattle business men and women. When it comes to making changes to improve the environment, "everybody gets it," he said.

Besides steering the Port of Seattle toward greener seas, Yashitani also wants to start a new era of social responsibility for the publicly owned agency. He intends to hire a director of social responsibility too.

Yashitani has been soliciting ideas for how the Port can do more to reduce waterfront pollution and said he's received about 100 suggestions so far. Some are as simple as using solar power in restrooms at some of the Port's public-access parks.

As for the social responsibility aspect of the Port's new policy, one idea is to turn away from the traditional approach for awarding contracts to just one private company to instead share the wealth among a group of companies. Yashitani used the example of a large tile project at Sea-Tac Airport that could be divided among four contractors instead of going to a single contractor.

The Port could maintain a roster of qualified small companies with whom it could do business.

Yashitani is the former head of the Port of Oakland, the Maryland Port Administration, and deputy director of the Port of Los Angeles. He's also worked with the ports of Boston and Baltimore. He also has experience in private development and management of office buildings and retail centers.

Yashitani graduated from West Point and later became aide-de-camp to the U.S. Army's commanding general in Japan. He was discharged from the Army as a captain and earned a master's degree in business administration from Harvard.

Seattle is the ninth largest port in the U.S., Yashitani said. When combined with Tacoma, the two ports rank as the third largest shipping complex in the nation.

According to Yashitani, the Port of Seattle had a great reputation before he came aboard and the port is "well-positioned for the future."

Tim St. Clair can be reached at timstc@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.