The future is Green

If ports take the path of creating energy, it could even mean better links with their surrounding area. “So many smaller ports are at loggerheads with the local community, who challenge developments and challenge the port for freight clogging up the road, noise, whatever. Ports try to address it in a piecemeal way, but it is possible it could be tied together into a single issue if ports start to generating cleaner power for the community to share,” he suggests.

“There are issues that don’t yet get pulled together – we need to be looking at this as a basis for competitiveness. All ports want customers to choose them over the competition, and there is no reason why the sector shouldn’t be winning the sustainability dollars for quite some time.

“Shipping currently (and often) boasts that it is already the greenest form of transportation in terms of CO2 emissions per cargo ton per mile – a fortuitous position as carbon emissions come to the top of the global agenda,” says Mr Redvers. “However the industry cannot rest on its laurels”, as there are definite challenges from road and rail.