ESG performance scoring method to support responsible investments in port operations

Abstract

ESG (environmental, social, and governance) is a concept that emerges as one of the modern methods of evaluating corporate risk for contemporary investors. Half of the assets in the European market are allocated through strategies that consider the ESG concept; approximately 30% in the American market. The topic is still at an early stage for advanced industries, with few articles proposing qualitative assessments of companies' ESG performance. The situation of the port industry is even worse, where no works that introduce the ESG concept in any port authority or terminals were found. Seaports represent 80% of all international trade and are essential to its primary hinterland. To fulfill this gap, this work proposes a method to quantify ESG performances of international ports. With a case study in three global hub ports selected by the similarities between its cargo and tonnage throughput and the importance of the primary hinterland – Santos, Bremen/ Bremerhaven, and Barcelona, it was found that their clusterization into grades based on ESG scores could support responsible investments in port operations, although its adoption faces challenges according to the country host development.