Imagine cleaner ports with less environmental pollution! That’s what GREENPORT aspires to, a project that unites experts from European-level trade groupings, companies, higher education institutions, vocational training providers, and research entities, to create a starting point for the right environment for a better future.
The Problem: Emissions
Ships and ports, as various other sectors create pollution during their operation, which in turn harms the environment. GREENPORT aims to tackle this by focusing on changing how people work in ports and thus contributing to lessen the climate crisis.
The Solution: Training and Teamwork
GREENPORT will be thus creating new educational programmes for port sector workers. These programmes will look into identifying and teaching the ideal “green” practices to reduce emissions, and become more sustainable within the port sector. This project is an extensive team effort, bringing together relevant entities related to port services and the relevant educators, teaching prospective port workers to find solutions together. This project is in fact being implemented by the following 10 partners from 8 different countries:
| Partner Name |
Country |
| T.C. Piri Reis Universitesi |
Türkiye |
| AcrossLimits |
Malta |
| Universitatea Maritimă Din Constanța |
Romania |
| Hogere Zeevaartschool |
Belgium |
| Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy |
Bulgaria |
| Sveučilište U Rijeci |
Croatia |
| European Tugowners Association VZW |
Belgium |
| Aggregazione Pubblico Privata Sulla logistica Mare Terra Societa Consortile A Responsabilita Limit |
Italy |
| APA- Administração Do Porto De Aveiro Sa |
Portugal |
| European Maritime Pilots’ Association |
Belgium |
AcrossLimits’ role:
As AcrossLimits (AL), we are the lead of the Sustainability and dissemination work package (WP6), and we are responsible for ensuring the quality of the project’s outputs. AcrossLimits is leading the dissemination efforts carried out on social media, via the project portal, and physical dissemination activities.
Moreover, WP6 will ensure the sustainability of the project by engaging other stakeholders via concrete sustainability activities to encourage stakeholder engagement and uptake of the project’s results and the methodology in the long-term.
AL will also contribute to the training work package (WP3) by designing the online eLearning course components, piloting and evaluating the eLearning train-the-trainer course, contributing to the needs analysis.
AL will also contribute to other work packages, including contributing to the analysis of raw data gathered in WP2, defining and developing HEI learning material, piloting and evaluating the learning material.
Actions so far:
The project has just hit the 6-month mark in implementation, starting in February 2024, where the partners were hosted at the Co-ordinators excellent Marmite Faculty within the T.C. Piri Reis Universitesi in Türkiye. This was followed by a Stakeholder Conference where the project was presented to the industry and maritime students; some companies also participated, presenting their products which could also contribute to greening ports.
Following other administrative tasks, the project then moved to the substance and initial phase of the project. Firstly, the partners embarked in an extensive data collection exercise where both the industry and academia were surveyed to understand how much port service companies and academics know about environmental sustainability, what steps they’re taking to reduce their carbon footprint, and if they think training employees and students could help them become more environmentally friendly. This was also accompanied by the identification of initiatives and incentives as well as current best practices.
Next steps:
Following the work done so far, the data collected and the gap analysis will now serve as the basis for the development of innovative, new curricula for higher education and vocational training. This task will identify the learning outcomes of each module which will include green skills and sustainability principles. Ultimately, this will be reviewed and finalised in consultation with industry experts.
The project will later on, also develop multimedia content, e-learning modules and simulations,and organise training sessions for educators, trainers, and learners. This will then be monitored and analysed through feedback from participants which will in term develop areas for improvement.
Envisaged long-term benefits for everyone
- Cleaner Air: By reducing emissions, ports will have cleaner air for workers and nearby communities.
- New Skills: Port workers will gain valuable skills to keep ports running efficiently and sustainably.
- A Greener Future: GREENPORT paves the way for a more sustainable maritime industry.
This project is a big step towards a greener future for ports and the environment!
For more information follow us on the following project channels:
Website: https://greenportalliance.eu/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/greenportalliances
Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/greenport.alliances/
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The GREENPORT Alliances project is funded under the Erasmus+ Programme.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
