New environmental performance baseline for inland ports: A benchmark for the European inland port sector

• A survey on environmental performance of EU inland ports was developed.
• 27 EU inland ports contributed to the survey distributed by EFIP.
• Top priorities of the sector are relationship with community, air and water quality.
• 70% of respondent ports have major components of an environmental management system.
• Monitoring is an essential activity, carried out by 67% of participant ports.

This paper presents the results of a collaborative programme of action between the European Federation of Inland Ports (EFIP) and the EC PORTOPIA research project to assist EU inland ports to enhance further their environmental performance. In order to achieve this goal, an environmental survey was specifically designed to reflect the operational and geographical circumstances of inland ports and to help to accelerate the culture of the reporting of environmental performance.The survey was developed to be user-friendly and practicable, and based on established good-practice taking into account the suggestions and advice of EFIP and its members, as well as the experience of the EcoPorts Network. As a result of the survey, an initial baseline of environmental performance for the EU inland port sector was established.A total of 27 port authorities participated in the survey, representing a range of port profiles in terms of size, commercial profile and geography. All response details were treated in strict confidence and the benchmark performance was reported as a European average. Results show that approximately 70% of the respondent ports declare that they have the major components of an Environmental Management System (EMS) actively in place (e.g. policy, inventory of legislation). An environmental index (1–10) has been calculated reflecting the performance of the sector in terms of the application of major EMS components. The average index value for the EU inland port sector baseline resulted in 6.Almost 67% of respondent ports indicated that they conduct environmental monitoring of different aspects, with waste being the most common. The survey results have also delivered the first top-10 ranking of environmental priorities for the EU inland port sector. It is interesting to note that also almost 70% of the inland ports apply initiatives to implement green actions. The outcomes of this paper are likely to be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders and decision-makers.