Latest news

EFIP’s President Willy Robijns presented good environmental port practices at the Danube Summit in Linz

From 31 May till 2 June the 5th Danube Summit took place in Linz (Austria). EFIP was participating in the exhibition. In addition EFIP’s President Willy Robijns gave a presentation on good environmental practices in European inland Ports  during the roundtable discussion on “inland navigation development and environmental protection- trade off or win-win”.

Willy Robijns gave eight examples of  good green practices in inland ports.  To start with he showed how some inland ports, as for instance Lille, are starting to measure their environmental and carbon  footprint. Moreover the Federation as such is actively participating in the debate on the internalisation of external costs. Thirdly EFIP’s President gave the example of the “Ecocomparateur” of the ports of Paris, an instrument that can be consulted on the website of the Parisian port which makes it possible to make compare 100% road transport and combined transport in terms of environmental costs,  time of transport and costs for the company.  Robijns continued with explaining how different inland ports (Paris,Llille, Lliège, London,…) have developed expertise in transporting urban waste by water. Other examples given were the shore side electricity project “Walstroom” from the Dutch Federation of Inland Ports and the plan of Rotterdam to reduce port fees for cleaner barges as from 2011. Furthermore EFIP was explaining that inland ports are more and more including green conditions in the concessions. A final example showed related to the energy efficiency of port buildings. The port of Ghent had just received one of the European Green Building Awards for the port building that they are using since 2005.

In his concluding remarks, Willy Robijns was emphasizing that to start with  inland ports are contributing to sustainable transport since they are functioning as the access gate to environmental transport modes (inland waterway transport, rail and maritime transport). Inland ports are however not resting on their laurels and are investing a lot in greener solutions.

More news