21st edition of GreenPort is off to a flying start

Following welcomes from Chairman Mark van der Veen, director at the University of Amsterdam’s Graduate School of Business, and Mike Sellers, Port Director at conference host Portsmouth International Port, it was down to business with a keynote session led off by Isabelle Ryckbost, Secretary General of ESPO with an overview of environmental and sustainability policy.

In a wide-ranging contribution Ryckbost addressed electrification plans across the EU, competition for grid energy, the possibility that ports could be classified as energy communities and benefit from special tariffs, and the complexities of the EU ETS for the maritime sector.

“We hope that maybe ports can be considered as energy communities, so we will work on that proposal but it is a big issue because we are not the only ones asking for grid – everyone is asking for grid,” she said, adding that directing energy to data centres had also become a big political issue.

Further exploring the policy landscape driving environmental action across the port sector, the opening session also heard from Lamia Kerdjoudj, Secretary General of FEPORT, Lee Howes, Port Environmental Lead Officer at Portsmouth International Port, and Geraint Evans, CEO of the UK Major Ports Group.

Rounding off a busy opening morning at GreenPort Congress the second session explored how ports are using real-time environmental intelligence to monitor water quality, track vessel activity, and support more sustainable operations.

Moderated by Raj Kehal, Chief Executive of Women in Ports, the conference received an update on IAPH and ESI from Manfred Lebmeier, Senior Environmental Advisor at the Hamburg Port Authority, and Ralf Garn, MD of OceanScore.

Laurynas Margis from PortXchange outlined how real-time environmental intelligence can manage port-proximate emissions, channel optimisation was highlighted by Jonathon Pearce, Business Development Manager and Marine Technical Advisor at OMC International, while the environmental impact of shore power in Portsmouth Harbour was examined by Kasia Kot, a PhD Student at Portsmouth University.

Concluding a dynamic morning Andreas Slotte, Head of Sustainability & HSEQ at the Port of Helsinki, spoke on how the Finnish port, one of the busiest passenger ports in Europe, had progressed on its journey to decarbonisation.