The European projects GREEN C PORTS and LOOP-PORTS, coordinated by the Valenciaport Foundation and in which the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV) participates, have been awarded in the World Port Sustainability Awards 2020 of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) – in the categories of “Resilient Infrastructure” and “Climate and Energy” respectively.
The award ceremony, initially scheduled to take place in March in Antwerp, within the framework of the IAPH World Ports Conference 2020, and later cancelled due to the COVID-19, was finally held this morning, virtually, through a webinar with the participation of the General Director of the IAPH, Patrick Verhoeven and representatives of the Valenciaport Foundation and the APV, as well as the other awarded entities.
Antonio Torregrosa, General Director of the Valenciaport Foundation has been in charge of collecting virtually the award of the GREEN C PORTS project, an initiative co-financed by the European Commission’s CEF Programme whose final objective is to reduce the environmental impact of port operations in cities and to control emissions in the main European ports.
According to Torregrosa “GREEN C PORTS will allow the installation of a network of environmental and meteorological sensors, the pilot development of a port environmental performance platform and the modelling of artificial intelligence algorithms to inform port users and clients and citizens about the main environmental parameters derived from port activities”. In addition, innovative solutions to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality, reduce noise levels, forecast crane productivity and measure emissions in real time will be tested in the ports of Venice, Piraeus, Bremerhaven, Wilhemshaven and Valencia.
On the other hand, Federico Torres, Director of Safety, Environment and Facilities of the PAV, has received, on behalf of the project consortium, the award of the LOOP-Ports project. Torres highlighted the great relevance of this award for the ports participating in the project because “it means the recognition of the work carried out in relation to the promotion of the circular economy as a future strategy in the ports”, and particularly in the port of Valencia. Torres added that this initiative “has helped us, among other things, to establish new objectives to be fulfilled within the framework of our internal strategy of sustainability”.
LOOP-Ports is a project financed by EIT Climate-KIC whose objective is to facilitate the transition to a more circular economy in the port sector by creating a Network of Ports in this area that will provide an ecosystem of innovation around port activity and stimulate the dissemination of circular economy initiatives. A total of 44 entities from 14 countries, mainly Port Authorities and port associations at European level are part of this Port Network.
The World Port Sustainability Awards were created to recognize the best projects registered in the IAPH’s World Port Sustainability Programme (WPSP), created in May 2017 with the aim of coordinating future sustainability efforts of ports worldwide and fostering international cooperation with supply chain partners, always guided by the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO), the International Association of Cities and Ports (IACP) and the Global Inland Waterway Infrastructure Partnership (PIANC) are part of this programme as strategic partners.