Standardising green port strategy
Helena Athoussaki, CEO of Carbon Positive
The first standardised emissions programme for ports has been launched by marine carbon management consultancy firm, Carbon Positive.
The premise of the programme is simple – to help ports develop a single long term strategy to manage energy and natural resources and reduce carbon footprint. The eventual aim is to become carbon neutral by a mixture of offsetting and forestry investment.
There are growing calls for ports to exercise corporate social responsibility (CSR) as financial institutions consider this as an essential element of assessing investment.
But the problem has been that green strategy for ports is not standardised up until now.
Helena Athoussaki, CEO of Carbon Positive said to GreenPort: "Whilst many ports are looking to boost their CSR initiatives, formalising the CSR process is the next logical step – with a standardised and independently verified programme for carbon management, ports can take a holistic approach to emissions that will lead to better benchmarking and raise best practice.”
She added that in the short-term, there are positive reputational benefits of taking a proactive approach to CSR and being seen to be involved in the programme by key stakeholders, including financiers and there are cost savings to be gained through energy efficiencies.
In the longer-term, she said this could lead to further cost savings, “contributing to reducing the shipping industry's emissions as a whole and benefiting relationships throughout the port logistics and supply chain.”
More information from: www.carbonpositive.com
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