The benefits of adopting a management approach are widely reported and well accepted by many leading industrial companies and organizations.
PERS will supply the basis for developing an environmental management system by identifying significant aspects, policy and performance criteria. A review, as part of PERS, will assist ports in setting objectives to improve performance on environmental issues as well as environmental management .

Benefits of adopting PERS

a) Cost saving and improved management control

• Improved business systems and business management
• Identify environmental (business) risks associated with ports
• Help to highlight potential for cost saving
• Greater competitiveness and efficiency
• Reduced costs through waste minimization and energy efficiency
• Better cost control

b) Compliance with legislation and relation with stakeholders

• Appropriate response to legislative and regulatory pressure
• Ports with PERS gain more trust of of stakeholders, e.g. local government. It gives credibility to the environmental actions inside and outside the port authority.
• Director’s liability
• Improved relationships and influence with regulators. PERS ports become a "partner in discussions" with government.
• The certificate has a status also in relation to the international network of Ecoports and ESPO connected to it.

c) Meeting customer expectations

• Meeting and pre-empting customer demands
• Improved profile with customers
• Marketing advantage

d) Demonstration of commitment

• Acknowledgement of leadership
• Independent certification to show transparency of actions through external review (optional)
• Enhanced perception of the company or authority
• Improved stakeholder relationships
• Increased confidence of investors, shareholders, banks and insurers

e) Improved environmental performance

• Continual minimization of environmental impacts
• Improved control of environmental aspects
• Better management of environmental issues
• Raised staff awareness
• Support for planning and development applications, and other formal assessment

f) Motivating the port authority towards Environmental Management

• Confirmation of internal commitment
• Help to ensure commitment and support for environmental management at all levels
• Helps motivating all staff and employees to contribute
• Show self-commitment but leaves more flexibility then ISO 14001 when starting up.

g) Integrated environmental management

• Better integration of environmental policy into all the authority’s functions
• Enhanced status of environmental quality within the management process
• More effective integration with safety, health and quality systems

h) Monitoring

• Promotes application of performance indicators to track efficiency of the management system  and the actual quality of the physical environment
• Provides ‘early warning system’ of potential problems

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