article · Environmental Challenges
Standard environmental management frameworks such as ISO 14001 and EMAS offer a baseline for maritime facilities, but managing the operational complexities of marine transport requires specialised tools. A comparative case study examining Tanger Mediterranean Port Authority in Morocco and the port of Aalborg in Denmark demonstrates that an environmental sustainability maturity system can serve as an effective integration mechanism. By evaluating specific sustainability indicators, the system helps port authorities address environmental challenges rooted in their operational characteristics. As international trade and shipping activities expand, employing a maturity system guide enables port managers to identify, assess, prioritise, and achieve sustainable development objectives. The approach also incorporates stakeholder perspectives and evaluates operational impacts on climate change, offering a structured pathway for ports to balance operational growth, environmental targets, and commercial competitiveness.
Maritime ports are vital to international trade but generate substantial environmental and climate pressures. General management certifications often miss the distinct operational realities of shipping and logistics. A structured sustainability maturity system enables port authorities to measure their environmental performance systematically, target specific climate impacts, and engage local stakeholders, ensuring that port expansions do not compromise environmental responsibilities.
The maturity system guide represents an applied operational tool tested across two active maritime ports. Intended users include port authorities, maritime terminal operators, and environmental compliance managers seeking to benchmark and prioritise sustainability interventions. While proven in real-world case studies, commercial rollout as a formal advisory product or digital decision-support tool would require further refinement and testing across a broader variety of port operations.
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The environmental management structure adopted by port managers with management systems such as ISO 14,001 or EMAS certification provides the basic foundation of environmental sustainability. However, to manage the complexity and the specific characteristics of marine transport activities, port managers must utilize additional sustainability tools to build upon the port's basic management systems structure. This study demonstrates through a case study of Tanger Mediterranean Port Authority, Morocco, and the port of Aalborg, Denmark, two types of maritime ports, that the use of an environmental sustainability maturity system provides the needed integration tool to address specific sustainability issues based on port operational similarities. The identification of sustainability indicators by port managers in monitoring and assessment of environmental management systems for this study was first presented by the authors at an international conference in February 2021.The following study measures the previous identified indicators to demonstrate that as port operations expand to handle increased global trade, the use of an environmental sustainability maturity system guide will assist global port managers in identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and meeting environmental sustainable development goals. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of port managers using an environmental sustainability maturity system guide as a key operational tool in meeting environmental sustainability objectives, which includes port stakeholder input and assessing port operations that impact climate change. These results also provide a basis for continued research on how to optimize port operations to stay competitive in a growing global economy using environmental sustainability practices.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.envc.2022.100481
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