Management Innovation for Environmental Sustainability in Seaports: Managerial Accounting Instruments and Training for Competitive Green Ports beyond the Regulations

Assunta Di Vaio,Luisa Varriale

doi:10.3390/su10030783

Abstract

In the last 30 years, environmental sustainability has been receiving increasing attention by scholars and operators. All the seaport stakeholders, including port authorities (PAs), policy-makers, port users, any port stakeholders, and local communities, must invest substantial resources to achieve high competitiveness with respect of the environment. Drawing from the extant regulations system and conducting a deep review of the main contributions on the phenomenon, this conceptual study suggests managerial accounting instruments and training, which are still under-researched, as effective measures for enforcing and encouraging green port development. This three-step study consists of a systematic review of the regulatory frameworks and literature on the phenomenon, and an outline of the gap of the legislative framework and research, from a management innovation perspective, where effective managerial practices for environmental sustainability are not successfully suggested and implemented within seaports. On the one hand, the Balanced Scorecard and Tableau de Bord are identified and proposed as managerial accounting instruments for assessing, monitoring, measuring, controlling, and reporting the organizational processes of port players, mainly PAs, for developing competitive green ports. On the other hand, training has been suggested to educate and guide the human resources at all organizational levels within seaports, for supporting and developing awareness and behavioral attitudes in the direction of environmental sustainability.

Highlights

In the last three decades, researchers, institutions, and operators have been paying increasing attention to the environmental impact of port and shipping operations
Following the management innovation perspective, this study provides a new reading of environmental sustainability phenomenon in the port industry to support the decision-making processes of the port authorities (PAs) by integrating managerial accounting instruments and training for developing green ports
The port players can prevent and manage, for example, the negative effects related to the activities and operations performed by PAs and shipping lines regarding specific perspectives addressed to guarantee the efficiency and effectiveness processing. We focus on both managerial instruments, because as shown in previous studies, they are already adopted in the port industry, we observe that their implementation is still missing in the environmental sustainability orientation, and because they are considered separately

Summary

Introduction

In the last three decades, researchers, institutions, and operators have been paying increasing attention to the environmental impact of port and shipping operations. The port and shipping industry had to adhere to rigid scrutiny and follow rules systems in terms of environmental regulatory compliance, because of the high price related to climate change derived from their activities and operations. The environmental sustainability issue represents one of the three identified dimensions of sustainability, beyond the economic and social dimension [1,2]. The environmental issue is primarily and usually associated with “vessel and cargo handling operations, industrial activities in ports, port planning and extension initiatives and hinterland accessibility” [3]. Public institutions and society in general strongly force ports to perform their social responsibility [4]. Ports increasingly improve “their image, as part of their corporate responsibility (CR) profile”, to appear “environmentally aware and sustainable” in responding to local community pressure and normative requirements [5] (pp. 292–295)

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