For decades and indeed centuries, ports around the world have focused almost entirely on money – turnover, profits and growth. Times are changing because now more ports are looking and thinking longer term by striving to balance economic expansion with environmental and social sustainability.<\/p>\n
At the Port of Antwerp, sustainability is important for many reasons. For a start, 60,000 people work directly on the port site and a further 85,000 people earn their living from the port\u2019s activities The port generates added value of around \u20ac20 billion a year, or 5.1% of Belgian GDP; and of course these people and everyone in Antwerp and Flanders also want to live in a clean and healthy environment.<\/p>\n
Antwerp Port Authority plays a major role in this, acting proactively as a facilitator, developer, promoter and coordinator. Crucially it invests heavily and consistently in the infrastructure, capabilities and capacity required for long-term success.<\/p>\n
By announcing its \u20183Ps\u2019 \u2013 prosperity, people and planet \u2013 and ensuring they go hand in hand, Antwerp Port Authority has come a long way. Rather than regarding sustainability as an additional burden and cost, the port authority sees it as a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n
Early environmental lead<\/b><\/p>\n
In 2012, the Port of Antwerp presented its first port sustainability report. This was a world first – never before had a whole port community published a joint sustainability report. Participants included Antwerp Port Authority and many of the 900 companies on the port site.<\/p>\n
The Port of Antwerp published its second sustainability report in 2014 and is due to publish its third in autumn 2015. All are based on the international Global Reporting Initiative standard.<\/p>\n
The report lists a wide range of indicators and provides updates on the progress meeting targets. Indicators include noise and nuisance, biodiversity, energy and water consumption, amounts of effluent and waste, and the quality of air, water, soil and sediments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In environmental terms, the Port of Antwerp has long had a natural head start due to its location 80km inland and it being closer than its sea port rivals to key centres of production and consumption. Some 60% of European purchasing power lies within a 500km radius of Antwerp, reducing inland transport distances and in particular the need for trucking.<\/p>\n
Vast amounts of freight traffic are consolidated at the Port of Antwerp, producing the economies of scale required for the increased use of rail and barge transport.<\/p>\n
Sustainable energy<\/b><\/p>\n
The Port of Antwerp\u2019s energy and particulates action plans list measures to become more energy efficient and environmentally-friendly. These include supporting the use of cogeneration and waste heat, and the development of biomass, solar and wind power.<\/p>\n
The port authority has installed solar panels on some of its buildings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In October 2015, Belgium\u2019s largest onshore windfarm is due to start generating power at the Port of Antwerp. Located on the left bank of the River Scheldt, the \u20ac70 million first phase of 15 wind turbines will supply some 35,000 Flemish households with green electricity.<\/p>\n
The windfarm project developer, Wind aan de Stroom NV, comprises three shareholder-partners: Antwerp Port Authority (47%), Left Bank Development Corporation (28%) and development consortium, Groene Energie Haven Antwerpen NV (25%). The ultimate aim is to operate a total of 40 to 50 wind turbines.<\/p>\n
A small windfarm on the port\u2019s right bank, opened in 2004, will be expanded to at least 38 wind turbines by 2020.<\/p>\n
Antwerp Port Authority and the Left Bank Development Corporation have a \u20ac500,000 energy fund to support initiatives such as encouraging port operators to invest in lower-emission handling equipment (such as compressed natural gas powered forklifts), carry out lighting studies and energy audits, and develop strategic energy plans.<\/p>\n
The revenue from wind power projects is used to expand this energy fund and therefore co-finance more energy-efficiency projects.<\/p>\n
The use of LNG<\/b><\/p>\n
Since 1 June 2015, the Port of Antwerp has granted a discount to seagoing ships that use closed exhaust-gas scrubbers or LNG power to reduce emissions of particulates. This discount comes on top of the port\u2019s Environmental Ship Index (ESI) grant, enabling some ships to benefit from a 30% reduction in port fees.<\/p>\n
Fitting within the framework of the World Ports Climate Initiative, ESI is a global maritime industry initiative to reward environmentally-friendly vessels that score better than the legally required minimum for emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2<\/sub>), mono-nitrogen oxides (NOx<\/sub>) and carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>). ESI also rewards ships fitted with coupling equipment to receive electricity from the shore.<\/p>\n The ESI system is supported by the Port of Antwerp and 24 other ports worldwide and so far has benefitted 3,067 ships.<\/p>\n The Port of Antwerp lies within the North Sea Emission Control Area (ECA), established as part of International Maritime Organization Marpol Annex VI regulations and one of several areas worldwide with particularly strict limits on airborne emissions from ships.<\/p>\n Since 2012, barges at the Port of Antwerp have been able to refuel with LNG from a truck. To upgrade this service, Antwerp Port Authority plans to grant a concession to operate a permanent LNG bunkering and filling facility on its quay 528.<\/p>\n The port authority\u2019s 21 tugboats do not run on LNG, but they do use low-sulphur fuel.<\/p>\n Environmental stewardship<\/b><\/p>\n Going forward, Antwerp Port Authority aims to increase the rail and barge share of inland transport from around 51% now to 60% by 2030. Measures to achieve this include expanding the number of strategic partnerships with hinterland hubs and the port\u2019s new connectivity platform, a one-stop service providing information on all maritime and intermodal links.<\/p>\n Infrastructure improvements will also encourage modal shift. Among Flemish barge transport-related projects is the upgrading of the Albert Canal to accommodate four-layer container barges.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In December 2014, the Port of Antwerp welcomed the opening of the \u20ac873 million Liefkenshoek rail link between the left and right banks of the Scheldt. The electrified line includes a 6km tunnel under the river and is designed to expand freight capacity and cut transfer times. <\/p>\n Over recent months the Port of Antwerp has seen the start of new and expanded rail services to Basel, Duisburg, Linz, Paris and Vienna.<\/p>\n Parts of the Antwerp port area are classified as Special Areas of Conservation in the European Union\u2019s birds and habitats directives.<\/p>\n Since 2000, Antwerp Port Authority and the nature organisation Natuurpunt have worked together to safeguard ecological areas covering over 600 hectares. This and other initiatives ensure that the port meets the requirements of the Flemish Species Policy and EU legislation.<\/p>\n To strengthen links with local residents and the wider Flemish community, the Port of Antwerp operates its MAS Port Pavilion visitor centre, holds port open days and conducts talks in schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Port of Antwerp is working hard to become the top sustainable port in the 1,000 kilometres between Le Havre and Hamburg, not least by its pioneering use of renewable energy, writes Annik Dirkx, Port of Antwerp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-9905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-technology-greenport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905","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=9905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9905"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=9905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}