Sustainable Development of Maritime Operations in Ports

Abstract

Globalisation has heralded burgeoning ship movements and maritime operations in ports alongside increased international concerns regarding potential environmental impacts. In particular, smaller ports require accessible tools to manage them. A framework to facilitate environmental management applies business process principles to identify relevant inputs, processes and outputs. A case study of Falmouth Harbour Commissioners compares functional units and flows that define input-output processes for anchoring and bunkering operations. Strategic-level processes affect present and future operations while tactical service processes guarantee service level and quality through their integrity. Operational processes occur at the output level. An accessible generic framework supports planning of more sustainable maritime operations, facilitates mitigation of potential risks and encourages authorities to engage with sustainability agendas and manage development proposals proactively. Ongoing interlocution with business strategists will refocus port managers on educational and commercial missions and increase stakeholder engagement. Simplification and optimisation phases of business process re-engineering remain untapped by business strategists.

Management Innovation for Environmental Sustainability in Seaports: Managerial Accounting Instruments and Training for Competitive Green Ports beyond the Regulations

“…In this direction, ports combine a set of measures, awareness training, and tougher regulations to bridge the existing gap between environmental aspirations and practice. For instance, as advised by the EU (Directive EC85/337, later EC97/11), ports can conduct environmental audits which, although not mandatory, make the port managers punitively liable for environmental damages [164].…”

“…Training represents a key factor in implementing EMSs thanks to its influence on the attitudes and behaviors among managers and employees [169]. Sustainability and specifically environmental training for staff can have significant benefits: "to encourage personnel to join trade associations, attend conferences or visit other ports to share best practice; to make a mission in educating and training port players to be aware of their impact on the environment; to engage specialist training providers; to plan and implement procedure, especially for archiving records, for example AIS (Automatic Identification System) records of anchoring operations and incidents arising during bunkering operations" [164].…”

“…In the port industry the effective implementation of instruments requires managerial involvement in the design process, and also, the various players within the port industry need to be involved in the environmental legislation process through consultation, agreements about specific guidelines and best practice, and developing benchmarks, management schemes, training, monitoring, research, and collaborative solutions [164].…”

Conceptual Model Development of Sustainability Practices: The Case of Port Operations for Collaboration and Governance

“…Moreover, with increasing environmental consciousness, ports need to improve their operational sustainability within the bounds of the environmental regulations, by accommodating stakeholder expectations [3,4]. To accommodate the current and future needs of ports and their stakeholders, ports need to find a balance between valuable land, labour and technology, as well as to perform as a multifunctional business centre which can produce added-value and growth in their host cities [5][6][7], in that:…”

Tool for the identification and assessment of Environmental Aspects in Ports (TEAP)

“…Trozzi and Vaccaro, 2000;Gupta et al, 2005;OECD, 2011;Dinwoodie et al, 2012;Paalvast et al, 2012). It is, therefore, important for those with responsibilities for port environmental management to be aware of the issues that are at stake with regards to the environment in European ports (ESPO, 2012).…”