UK needs focus for greening of ports

The study found that about one in ten UK ports do not have an environmental policy in place, while one in twenty question whether climate change will have any effect at all on their ports.

However, more than half (57%) of UK port decision makers recognise that they must take responsibility for providing resources in order to achieve environmental compliance and have already taken steps to improve the environmental sustainability of their ports.

Richard Marks, a chartered civil engineer in Royal Haskoning’s Maritime division, said: “UK ports are steadily recognising the need to implement environmental strategies and it is encouraging to see that so many recognise that they still have a long way to go in terms of doing enough.

“But there is still a sizeable number that are failing to take any action at all, with almost one in ten ports (9%) not planning to do anything in the next 12 months or unsure of what they should be doing.”

However, while one in five UK ports claim environmental compliance is already their number one priority, this figure is expected to rise with 81% of UK ports planning to train their existing employees to increase their environmental skills base.