Ports of Rotterdam, Le Havre, Piraeus Renew Environmental Standard

 

Isabelle Ryckbost, ESPO’s Secretary General, Eamonn O’Reilly, ESPO’s Chairman, and Sotiris Raptis, EcoPorts coordinator, handed over the PERS certificates to the ports’ representatives during the annual ESPO Conference in Rotterdam.

 

“I would like to congratulate the three ports for obtaining once more the environmental standard of EcoPorts (PERS). PERS certification is rewarding years of day-to-day engagement towards improving environmental management. The Port of Rotterdam, Port of Le Havre and Port of Piraeus have been members of EcoPorts for a long time now and have created their own tradition within EcoPorts. We encourage all ports to join EcoPorts and obtain the PERS standard” says ESPO’s Secretary General, Isabelle Ryckbost.

 

Being PERS certified requires amongst others that the port increases transparency by making its environmental report publicly available. It also implies that the port is effectively monitoring the environmental challenges and is implementing an improved environmental management. 

 

PERS helps ports to comply with legislation and meet customer expectations. Additionally, ports’ environmental performance is increasingly taken into account ("factored-in") in calculations of the premium by major insurance companies; standards such as PERS are recognized as components of a sustainable approach.

 

“EcoPorts’ environmental standard (PERS) is a quality mark for the certified ports. The transparency requirements of PERS enable ports to enhance their relationship with local communities and their market reputation within the supply chain. 

 

It is also important that through EcoPorts, ports of different size and geographic location are able to exchange good practices and effectively encourage each other to improve their environmental performance” says EcoPorts coordinator, Sotiris Raptis.

 

One third of the 94 EcoPorts members have now acquired PERS, which is the only port specific environmental management standard. Compliance with the PERS standard is independently assessed by Lloyd’s Register and the certificate has a validity of two years. PERS is revised after the 2-year period to make sure that the port continues to meet the requirements.

 

The EcoPorts tools are available to ports and terminals outside Europe through the ECO Sustainable Logistic Chain Foundation (ECOSLC).