Global CO2 emissions could be reduced by encouraging more cargo to favor the Port of Venice to reach final European destinations. This represents the conclusion of a study made by the Venice Architecture University. Although it may seem paradoxical, if part of the goods heading for Central Europe were to choose Venice rather than the North European Ports, there would be a considerable reduction in transport-generated hazardous emissions. This strategic value could be coupled to the fact that Venice is also the only major Italian port to have an inland waterway port. This port is used to transport goods to Mantua and Cremona along the Po river, which is the longest Italian River crossing the most industrialized regions in Italy, thus contributing in the reduction of the amount of goods carried on road.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreen Port\u201d is not simply a slogan or a wish, on the contrary, it summarises a concept that revolutionises the way ports are traditionally conceived and translates into a range of concrete actions. These concrete actions have been strenuously encouraged by the Venice Port Authority over recent years, and cover five main areas: air, water, soil, power and the city of Venice. The Venice Port Authority has carefully planned its environmental policy and defined the procedures, programmes and aims it intends to achieve.By 2011 the Venice Port Authority will be environmentally certified according to UNI EN ISO 14001:2004.<\/p>\n
Actions and investments for the air quality could be described through research for understanding port air quality. The Venice Port Authority teamed up with the National Research Council (CNR) to monitor the quality of the air for three years, between 2007 and 2009, to understand the effects of ship emissions. It specifically assessed cruise traffic during the summer season through a measurement station located at the Marittima Passenger. The results show that the direct contribution of ships to the amount of fine dusts (PM10 and PM2,5) ranges between 2% and 8% during transit and between 14% and 15% when docked. This was also an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of the Venice Blue Flag initiative in which the Port of Venice acted as forerunner of the legislation which is now in force. Shipowners have pledged to use fuel with an increasingly lower level of sulphur when calling at the Port of Venice and this action has resulted in a reduction in sulphur dioxide from 236 Kg in 2007 to 186 Kg in 2008, to 159 Kg in 2009, on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
Actions and investments for the water quality start from the removal of sediment with varying concentrations of pollutants regenerates the lagoon while keeping contaminants well away from the water by confining them in extremely safe structures. About EUR 80 million were invested on this issue. Since 2000, several surveys and assessments have been conducted to detect the effects of the transit of ships and ferries on Venice’s artistic heritage. The conclusion shows that large ships do not change the wave motion in any significant way. All measurements, some conducted using advanced methods such as stereo photograms, showed that St. Mark’s Basin and the Giudecca Channel are affected by major wave motions. However, the motion is mainly caused by small public and private vessels that transit at a much faster speed than the large ships. The assessments also concluded that the vibration caused by transiting ships and ferries does not affect the statics of the buildings. To protect the waters and avoid the spill of pollutants, the Venice Port Authority prepared a specific plan that was approved in 2008 by the Veneto Region. According to the plan, the solutions for the collection and disposal of waste from ships and residue from loading operations must comply with safety standards that protect the environment and human health. In 2010 a concession was granted (for some EUR 11 million) for issues associated to waste collection and planning, building and managing a bilge water, grey water and wash water treatment plant. In the Marittima Passenger Terminal, rainwater is collected and conveyed to a treatment plant which is in fact the largest plant in Europe to use the innovative “Stormfilter” technology. This solution is based on a filtering system that uses rechargeable media cartridges that withhold particulate and absorb pollutants, such as heavy metals, nutrients and hydrocarbons. Actions and investments for the land recovery are represented by environmental surveys on the soil and the groundwater to analyse the pollution levels. Remediation works are currently in progress in a vast area of the Venice-Porto Marghera that will be regenerated to be used as a port logistics area. The investments for this project was EUR 24 million.<\/p>\n
Another major action to safeguard the lagoon is the erection of embankments, including regenerating existing quaysides and banks to ensure they are watertight to avoid contamination. EUR 166 million were invested for this action.<\/p>\n
In order to solve the issue of the contaminated dredged material, the Venice Port Authority together with local and national bodies signed what has come to be known as the \u201cMoranzani Agreement\u201d that envisages the erection of plants to treat and dispose of 3.2 million cubic meters of sediment. The agreement also includes plans to ground some main power lines, review the road system in Marghera\/ Malcontenta and implement urban parks on land currently used as landfills. The consensus of all the parties involved was achieved by ensuring social participation and by sharing the initiative following the guidelines of Agenda 21, the UN programme for sustainable development.<\/p>\n
Actions and investments for energy saving and production start from lighting, illumination accounts for one fifth of all electricity consumed. In Autumn 2010, the Venice Port Authority started using LED technology to illuminate the Passenger Port. Compared with the conventional systems, the new 23 meter spotlights have enabled the port to save up 80% more energy. In 2011, 52 Kwp photovoltaic panels will be installed on some of rooftops in the port’s facilities and there are already plans to extend the surface covered. These solutions cover the terminal\u2019s power needs and, when the cruise season finishes, they put back into the grid the power absorbed in peak periods. A plant will be erected to test the option of the wide-scale use of biomasses (algae) to generate power and heat and make the Port of Venice energy-independent. A joint study is being conducted with ENEL to assess the use of electrically powered vehicles only in the Marittima Passenger Terminal. ENEL is also involved in planning a system to feed berthed ships from land (Cold-ironing Project which has been operating since 2010 for mega-yachts), enabling them to switch off their engines when docked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For centuries Venice was the bridge and connection for the trading within the far east countries. Shortening the way for the import of silk and spices to Europe remains a challenge. Today it\u2019s measured in terms of CO2 and transport duration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-12053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects-initiatives-greenport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12053","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=12053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12055,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12053\/revisions\/12055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12053"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=12053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}