{"id":1046,"date":"2020-07-07T10:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portstrategy.nfdtesting.uk\/greenport\/2020\/07\/07\/breaking-new-ground-in-eco-certification\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:48:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:48:36","slug":"breaking-new-ground-in-eco-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/news\/australasia-greenport\/breaking-new-ground-in-eco-certification\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking new ground in eco certification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Port of Newcastle in New South Wales has passed the certification tests set by EcoPorts under its Port Environmental Review System (PERS) following stringent independent tests by Lloyd\u2019s Register to measure the port against best practice management around the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Lloyds Register audit specifically looks at a port\u2019s profile, environment policy statement and its processes for environmental reporting, looking for examples of best practice such as successful management solutions or options to respond to environmental challenges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>EcoPorts champion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One such example would be the port\u2019s AUS$35 million bulk terminal upgrade, which features a new ship unloader with state-of-the-art crane and environmental monitoring systems. The port is also continuing to improve efficiency and reduce fuel, power and water consumption across its operations in order to reduce its environmental impact.<\/p>\n<p>Newcastle\u2019s environment, sustainability and planning manager, Jackie Spiteri, says the EcoPorts certification is an important milestone in recognising the port\u2019s commitment to environmental management and sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven sustainability is central to the port\u2019s business strategy, we are actively working to manage the environmental challenges we face as a city port by focusing on diversifying trade and improving efficiency and safety of the supply chain,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are also seeking to minimise and offset the port\u2019s environmental footprint and partnering with employees, customers and community on sustainability initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe certification milestone is also significant in that it enables valuable collaboration and learning opportunities with other similarly-committed ports around the world, including the highly-regarded teams at the Port of Rotterdam, the Port of Hamburg and the Port of Amsterdam.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Newcastle is also championing the EcoPorts standard with a number of other ports across Australia and New Zealand, with several others now pursuing the opportunity to participate in the global initiative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sustainability scale<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline_image inline_image_right image_size_med fullsize\" data-attachment=\"106050\" data-sequence=\"1\"><button class=\"show-fullscreen\" data-url=\"\/attachment?attype=P&amp;atcode=106050&amp;storycode=1248137\">Show Fullscreen<\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"picture\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Shorebirds at Ash Island\" src=\"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/07\/01_106050_PoN_supplied-stills_030719-6.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"lazyloaded wp-image-1048\" width=\"3446\" height=\"2461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/07\/01_106050_PoN_supplied-stills_030719-6.webp 1600w, https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/07\/01_106050_PoN_supplied-stills_030719-6-300x214.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/07\/01_106050_PoN_supplied-stills_030719-6-1024x731.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/07\/01_106050_PoN_supplied-stills_030719-6-768x548.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/07\/01_106050_PoN_supplied-stills_030719-6-1536x1096.webp 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3446px) 100vw, 3446px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline_meta\">\n<p class=\"inline_title\">Ash Island<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline_caption\">Shorebirds at Ash Island, where the Port of Newcastle took part in an environmental rehabilitation project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>On a broader sustainability scale, Newcastle has moved to take further environmental initiatives in recent months. Through a partnership with Greenfleet, a leading not-for-profit environmental organisation, the port is now offsetting greenhouse gas emissions for all international and domestic corporate flights.<\/p>\n<p>Planting approximately 775 native trees to establish a biodiverse forest will offset 208 tonnes of CO2-equivalent, generated as part of corporate flights between January 2018 and September 2019. Future emissions will be offset quarterly.<\/p>\n<p>The scheme is part of a plan for the port to contribute towards improving the social, economic and environmental life of the Hunter Region and NSW.<\/p>\n<p>The Port of Newcastle has also flicked the switch for fully-electric vehicles across its operations in the latest step towards achieving its sustainability goals.<\/p>\n<p>It has recently commissioned four Hyundai Ioniq electric vehicles, with the rest of the organisation\u2019s vehicles to transition by the end of 2021 as other suitable models become available.<\/p>\n<p>Switching to electric vehicles will save more than 48 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.<\/p>\n<p>The port is also part a Bronze Partner in the Sustainability Advantage programme run by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH). The core essence of this programme is to partner with businesses to help them align sustainability strategies with the United Nation\u2019s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG\u2019s). The bronze award was made last year and the company hopes to improve on that again this year.<\/p>\n<p>The Port of Newcastle is a major Australian trade gateway handling 4600 ship movements and 171 million tonnes of cargo each year. Its annual trade is worth about $25 billion to the New South Wales economy, but with a deepwater shipping channel operating at only 50% of its capacity and significant port land available for development, it is positioned for further expansion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Australian port has broken new ground in Australia and New Zealand by becoming the first port in the region to be certified by EcoPorts, the global environmental and sustainability standard for the ports sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-greenport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions\/1049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}