Tag: ESPO

uropean Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) launched its new "Green Guide; Towards excellence in port environmental management and sustainability" during a dedicated session at the GreenPort Congress in Marseille. The new Guide fully revises and updates the last ESPO Environmental Code of Practice that was produced almost ten years ago.ESPO Chairman Victor Schoenmakers said to be delighted to present ESPO's new Guide: "I am confident that the ambitious goals of the Green Guide will encourage our members to further improve their track record in environmental management and performance." "This Guide is a product of ports for ports and I am very grateful to the members of the Sustainable Development Committee and the secretariat for the hard work they put in.", Mr Schoenmakers added.The guide goes a step further than previous editions. After re-establishing the ports' vision on sustainability, the Guide introduces a common framework for action under 'Five Es': Exemplify, Enable, Encourage, Engage and Enforce. This action framework is applied to five selected environmental issues: air quality, energy conservation and climate change, noise management, waste management and water management.In the foreword to the Guide, Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas wrote: "The application of the 'Five Es' is showing the way towards a ...

At the GreenPort Conference in Venice ESPO officially launched the new EcoPorts portal today at the GreenPort Conference in Venice. The portal marks the integration of EcoPorts within the structure of ESPO.Through this website, ESPO manages the EcoPorts network of ports and offers the opportunity to port authorities within its broad membership to use the well-established EcoPorts tools, Self Diagnosis Method (SDM) and Port Environmental Review System (PERS). SDM and PERS have been updated and re-launched as part of the services ESPO offers to its members.The new EcoPorts portal incorporates SDM as an online-based tool and provides visibility and credit to port authorities that achieve and maintain an "Ecoports port" status.The latter is achieved by any port registering within the new system and completing the online SDM questionnaire, contributing in this way to the up-to-date maintenance of the European benchmark of performance in port environmental management. Furthermore, the "Ecoports port" status allows ports to access, implement and get certified by PERS, the only port sector specific environmental management standard."ESPO is in a unique position to encourage best practice among its member ports and to set challenging targets.", said ESPO Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven, "The integration of EcoPorts within the structure ...