According to the Chief of the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH) every port can do something with regards to sustainability, but they have to choose exactly on what they’re going to focus so that they do it perfectly. In 2018 IAPH launched the ‘World Ports Sustainability Programme’ in line with UN’s 17 SDGs.
Namely, Patrick Verhoeven IAPH’s managing director for policy and strategy, quoted to the Loadstar that the program aims to more than the environment, encompassing resilient infrastructure, climate and energy, safety and security, community outreach and governance and ethics. It’s an integrated approach because all these things affect one another.
The Chief continued that port sustainability isn’t only for the major maritime ports, also known as ‘green port’ leaders as Singapore, Rotterdam and Los Angeles, and that even small ports can make a positive impact.
And then, of course, you talk about emissions, air quality and road congestion. But equally, what are you doing for that community in terms of generating work and offering good jobs? It’s very interesting how much you can do, even if you’re a small port.
In the meantime, he highlighted that sustainability shouldn’t have been categorised, as it’s not the high end and doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to be achieved.
However, given the fact that the IMO 2020 regulation is approaching, IAPH partnered with IMO on the ‘Just-in-time’ initiative, noting the importance of port optimisation, because of the huge amounts of fuel waste from ships waiting at berth.
I think we [IAPH] need to be much more present than we have been. The shipping industry has its own logic and its own economics and way of doing things. But ultimately, what they decide will have implications for ports and the wider supply chain.