Abstract
Emphasis on sustainability practices is growing globally in the shipping industry due to regulations on emissions from transportation as well as increasing customer demand for sustainability. This research aims to shed light on the environmental sustainability of companies involved in maritime logistics at the major Finnish seaport, HaminaKotka. This seaport is a part of International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Baltic and North Sea emission control area, with special emission-reducing measures contributing directly to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by mitigating negative impacts of industrial activity on environment and climate change. Two semi-structured interviews with companies at HaminaKotka were carried out to construct a case study examining the sustainability challenges at hand. In addition, experience of one of the authors in a managerial position at the studied seaport complex, as well as the sustainability communications of the companies situated in the area were used to support the findings. The companies improve environmental sustainability by using multimodal transport chains, alternative fuels in the transports, and environmental sustainability demands towards their partners. However, the most important measures, according to these companies, are transport mode selection and cargo load optimization. Moreover, companies have identified bottlenecks of cargo flow at the hinterland due to road infrastructure constraints. As regulations and customers are requiring environmental sustainability, companies are forced to renew their operations, strategy and business models. Especially, the emission-reducing regulations drive companies to implement means to control the produced emissions.
Highlights
In Europe, direct goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transports have been introduced
The new regulation regarding nitrogen oxide emissions in the Baltic Sea region (80% reduction compared to 2016), coming into effect in January 2021 (International Maritime Organization [IMO] 2019), basically requires the new ships used in the said area to use either Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as fuel or have catalytic emission cleaners to comply with the stricter nitrogen emission regulation (Ministry of Transport and Communications 2016)
Experiences from managerial position in HaminaKotka The governing body of HaminaKotka seaport complex arranges on-land transportation in collaboration with the seaport operators with a goal to keep the traffic fluent, thereby eliminating unnecessary emissions due to congestions leading to idle vehicles and machinery
Summary
In Europe, direct goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transports (which amount to approximately quarter of all produced carbon dioxide emissions, Solaymani 2019) have been introduced. Harmful air pollutant emissions reduction goals from European transports beyond 2020 (compared to levels of 2005) include sulphur by 59%, nitrogen oxides by 42%, ammonia by 6%, volatile organic compounds by 28% and atmospheric particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 μm by 22%. The acceptable level for sulphur content in used fuels, in Baltic Sea region, has been 0.1% since 2015 (Hilmola 2019) and globally that is 0.5%, as of January 2020 (International Maritime Organization [IMO] 2019). The new regulation regarding nitrogen oxide emissions in the Baltic Sea region (80% reduction compared to 2016), coming into effect in January 2021 (International Maritime Organization [IMO] 2019), basically requires the new ships used in the said area to use either Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as fuel or have catalytic emission cleaners to comply with the stricter nitrogen emission regulation (Ministry of Transport and Communications 2016)
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