One year ahead of target, the carbon reduction has already sped past its target, declining by an incredible 40%.
Mohammed Al Mashani, HSE manager at Salalah, said that to achieve its vision the port needed to educate its employees and customers about the initiatives such as switching off idle machinery, automatic switch-off of crane lights, tree-planting support, and several smaller projects which focus on increasing efficiency, productivity and reducing waste.
“Our strategy was to strengthen the tools we used and the environmental awareness of our people and our external stakeholders through creative training and lean procedures that addressed the issues of time and responsibility.
“One of the most difficult aims to embark on is behavioural change, and a significant amount of these initiatives involved persuading a new mindset – particularly where turning off idle machinery was involved – but also in the correlated initiatives of reducing time spent between vessel berthing/gang cycles (improving efficiency) and reducing waste (switching lights off in buildings, AC levels between 23-25, etc).
“To achieve behavioural change requires a mixed bag of consistency, motivation drivers, games and challenges, campaign stickers and signs, repeated messages from leadership, and so on. These methods require ongoing innovation in how the management connects and incentivises (and sometimes penalises!) the staff towards change.”