Changing the game

These will be realised through co-operation and developing partnerships. This was the clear message emerging from GreenPort Venice. The active participation of shippers, shipping lines, logistics and energy specialists with port and terminal stakeholders provided a unique opportunity to share ideas and discuss future developments.

Focus on energy and logistics

Paolo Costa, VPA President, warmly welcomed delegates. He shared his vision for the ‘Greening of the Port of Venice’*1 . Innovative port initiatives include a pilot energy plant powered by algae; and an offshore terminal to be constructed 8 km outside the Venice Lagoon. Barges will tranship cargoes into terminals along the coast.

Victor Schoenmakers (Port of Rotterdam) outlined the importance of research and innovation to the achievement of their vision for ‘a green and clean global port’. A strategic partnership with GE is an important step combining both parties expertise into a long term innovation partnership. Projects will cover areas including mobility and carbon & energy. GE’s Roland Texeira de Mattos provided an insight into the work to develop an estate wide smart grid integrating energy sources and consumers. This will facilitate demand management and enable further electrification. A pilot project is now underway.

Benchmarking Performance

Chris Wooldridge (Cardiff University) and Antonis Michail (ESPO) celebrated 15 years of achievement of the EcoPorts Foundation sharing best practice and developing the SDM and PERS support tools and certification. EcoPorts is now integrated within ESPO with a new look website*! The PPRISM* project to develop port industry wide indicators for benchmarking is also making good progress!

The return of sail power!

David Surplus inspired the audience with B9 Shipping’s prototype coastal vessel powered by sails and bio-gas/LNG. With the growing demand for biomass in the UK, the coasters could provide feeder services from a Baltic hub.

A Clean Port concept supports the hub, with energy requirements supplied by biomass fuelled CHP (Combined Heat & Power). Biogas is generated from an onsite AD (anaerobic digestion) plant fed by organic waste. Ideally co-located with an LNG facility, excess bio-gas can be fed into the local gas grid.

Decarbonising is a key priority

The urgency for ports, the logistics industry and their stakeholders to decarbonising featured throughout the event. Leading industrialists from the World Economics Forum’s (WEF) Logistics & Supply Chain Industry Community undertook research into ‘Supply Chain Decarbonisation’. Sean Dohety (WEF) highlighted priority areas identified for action including slow steaming, and modal shift from road to rail. He also stressed the opportunities decarbonisation could bring to ports in the future as shipping grows in importance.

Work being undertaken to ‘Decarbonise the Maritime Chain’ by Professor Alan McKinnon at Heriot-Watt University is also worthy of note. Geert Schrooten* (Port of Antwerp), Rafael Company* (Port of Valencia and Climeport) and Charles Haine* (DP World) discussed their progress in the carbon management of their ports and terminals. Carbon monitoring and measurement is essential for improving performance and prioritising actions for improvement. The need for comparability between organisations and techniques was also debated.

Conclusion

The importance of working together co-operatively and in partnership, developing innovative and game changing solutions to achieve our ‘clean and green’ goals rang loudly from the presentations and discussions. Ports can beneficially influence logistics chains by understanding the needs of cargo owners and providing ‘value adding’ solutions. New opportunities to diversify as Energy Ports are there to be grasped. Above all attention must be focused on achieving lean and clean operations.

David Whitehead (BPA) commented in the final session that whilst there ‘may be reasons to be worried, there are a lot more reasons to be cheerful. We are not alone, our problems are shared and there are real opportunities!’ We look forward to progressing discussions at the GreenPorts Congress in Hamburg on the 14/15 September.

The conference presentations are available to download at: http://www.greenport.com/greenportvenice/about-the-conference/downloads

Kate Royston MBA AIEMA

Robbee Smole - Sustainable Business Solutions