The GREEN C PORTS project, co-financed by the CEF programme of the European Union and developed by a consortium including the Port Authority of Venice, dbh, Port Authority of Piraeus, Municipality of Piraeus, Global Maritime Agency, Zen Travel, ICCS, Inerco, Gas2Move, Baleària and the Valencia Port Authority under the coordination of Fundación Valenciaport, has been awarded the 2020 World Port Sustainability Award of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) – in the category of “Resilient Infrastructure”.
The award ceremony, initially planned to take place in Antwerp in March, but cancelled due to the COVID-19, was finally held online on June 24. The ceremony counted with numerous participants from various ports around world, representatives from Green C Ports consortium and from INEA (European Commission). Antonio Torregrosa, Managing Director of the Fundación Valenciaport, has virtually collected the project’s award. Antonio Torregrosa described the objectives of the project and the importance of the technologies used in it to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality, reduce noise levels, forecast crane productivity and measure emissions in real time at the ports of Venice, Piraeus, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Valencia.
Dirk Beckers, Director of INEA and managing the EU grant, stated: “It makes me extremely proud that a project supported by the Connecting Europe Facility is being recognised for its excellence and has been selected to receive such a prestigious award. Transport sustainability is one of the priorities of the European Commission and INEA will continue to support projects with this objective in the future to ensure the transition towards a zero-emission transport sector”.
Moreover, the message from Patrick Verhoeven, Managing Director of IAPH, to the winner was: “You set the bar in the implementation in practice of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations in ports. We hope that many other ports in the world will be inspired by your initiatives. On behalf of all of us at the IAPH and the World Ports Sustainability Program: kind regards, take care and we hope to celebrate your successes in the future.”
The project is reaping the rewards of the joint effort from the whole consortium and with the support from the European Commission in building a very innovative project towards the support of ports’ environmental sustainability.
