First words....
Stevie Knight - GreenPort editor
Welcome to the re-launched GreenPort magazine, and congratulations... because picking up a magazine that aims to tackle both environmental issues and business is, after all, an act of faith that there's more than tension between the two subjects.
The fact is, it is sometimes difficult to keep people on board with the environmental agenda, especially as many areas are facing budget cuts, and it can be worryingly easy to see sustainability as somehow as 'an added extra'.
Del Redvers of BMT agrees. If it is just an add-on, it will probably miss the point in the long run. He says, “A truly sustainable plan needs to be built into the heart of operations. And if you do it right, a return on investment isn't actually at odds with a return on energy and carbon.”
So, while there are easy environmental gains such as energy savers, more can be done with the bigger picture, like helping to shape up the logistics chain – something that has a large part in this issue.
The ongoing problem is that what’s important is rarely marked ‘urgent’.
“We may be used to being told that ‘time is running out’ for the environment – but for port operations, now really is the right time to get sustainability onto the agenda,” says Mr Redvers. The reason, he says, is that people need to engage early enough to make a difference, and start to put their own stamp on the game.
But changing the game isn’t easy: it’s often a case that operations are busy fighting to keep ahead when things are going well, or busy fire-fighting losses when they are not. “Actually, there is no easy point to engage with the oncoming environmental issues, unless, of course, you take the view that sustainability means change, and change is what you are up against anyway,“ says Mr Redvers.
He points out, if you don't take the necessary steps now, you will be forced to later, and it's better not to be pushed into a piecemeal operation. This won't suit anyone. "The worst possible option is to do nothing, then be forced into making decisions that don't actually do you any good," says Mr Redvers.
But there are good ways to turn these decisions into opportunities, even if it does mean turning over the piles of paper that don’t have the ‘urgent’ label on them. Or picking up a magazine....
Stevie Knight, Editor
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