ESPO congratulates the ports of Den Helder (Netherlands), Harlingen (Netherlands), Groningen (Netherlands), Den Oever (Netherlands), Niedersachsen Brake (Germany), Niedersachsen Cuxhaven (Germany) and Niedersachsen JadeWeserPort (Germany) for obtaining EcoPorts’ environmental performance standard (PERS). The PERS certificate was handed over to the ports during the Trilateral Wadden Seaport Conference on 17 May in Harlingen by ESPO’s Secretary General, Isabelle Ryckbost.

“I am delighted to congratulate seven Wadden ports for obtaining PERS and to see that EcoPorts has played a role in bringing these Wadden ports together to work on the protection of the precious Wadden Sea environment. The PERS certification is a quality mark for their environmental management. It gives ports a pat on the back for being ready to address the environmental challenges, being transparent in communicating their environmental policy and building an even closer relationship with port cities’ communities. Consumers and shippers are paying more attention to greening the supply chain,” says ESPO’s Secretary General, Isabelle Ryckbost.

Being PERS certified requires amongst others that the port increases transparency by making its environmental report publicly available. It also implies that the port is effectively monitoring the environmental challenges and is implementing an improved environmental management. PERS helps ports to comply with legislation and meet customer expectations. Additionally, ports’ environmental performance is increasingly taken into account ("factored-in") in calculations of the premium by major insurance companies; standards such as PERS are recognized as components of a sustainable approach.

 “The steady increase of the ports certified with the PERS standard indicates the readiness of ports to improve their environmental management, build an even closer relationship with port cities’ communities and enhance their market reputation. We encourage all ports to join EcoPorts and obtain the PERS standard,” says the EcoPorts coordinator, Sotiris Raptis.

One third of the 93 EcoPorts members have now acquired PERS, which is the only port specific environmental management standard. Compliance with the PERS standard is independently assessed by Lloyd’s Register and the certificate has a validity of 2 years. PERS is revised after the 2-year period to make sure that the port continues to meet the requirements.

The EcoPorts tools are available to ports and terminals outside Europe through the ECO Sustainable Logistic Chain Foundation (ECOSLC).

You can find more information on EcoPorts and PERS here: https://www.ecoports.com/pers