The third meeting of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Shipping and Ports Initiative took place on Wednesday the 30th of September 2020. In this session, we focused on Circular Economy and Energy Transition. We truly appreciated all your inside views and comments. Our ultimate goal is to co-design a sustainable future vision and identify technological solutions and portfolios of financing tools that can support the identified pathways towards the future vision.
We are glad that our network is growing with more professionals. So far, our team is composed of representatives from the policy and the business sector, the academia, research and education, NGOs, investment companies and port authorities. The actors’ mapping based on the Influence – Interest – Adaptation concept was very detailed with the considerations regarding levels of preparedness that stakeholders should have shown how quick the discussions proceed. In our last meeting, we discussed the stakeholders that should be engaged first in this roundtable. We agreed that port managers, SMEs working on the maritime sector, the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping, the Hellenic Shipowners association as well as the banking sector would be significant additions in our team.
We truly appreciated all your inside views on the challenges that the sector faces as well as the various projects and initiatives that could offer solutions grouped in the categories of the energy transition, innovation and circular economy (Table 1). Experiences from your own business and academic work indicated innovative solutions to the sustainable development of ports and whether other countries’ best practices can be transferred in Greece or not. Considerations, such as biodiversity conservation and its link with sustainable shipping entered this discussion.
Table 1 – Indicative list of projects related to CE and Energy Transition in the maritime sector
| Name of the project | Local contact points | Small description | Thematic Priority |
| LOOP Ports | Climate-KIC | The main goal of the LOOP-Ports project is to facilitate the transition to a more circular economy in the port sector, where products, materials and resources are maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the waste generation minimised. | Circular Economy |
| Green and Connected Ports | PPA, Municipality of Piraeus | The GREEN C Ports Action will pilot the use of sensors, big data platforms, business intelligence tools and artificial intelligence modelling at the ports of Valencia, Venice, Piraeus, Wilhelmshaven and Bremerhaven, contributing this way to the future roll out of these technologies in the market. | Circular Economy |
| Circular Economy Beacons
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ATHENA RC | The goal of this project is to build an eco-system for circular, climate-related innovation that catalyzes systems transition in sequences from experiment through collaboration to implementation. Such a cross-national ecosystem currently does not exist in the Balkan region, but it is demanded by Chambers of Commerce, ministries and the business sector. | Circular Economy |
| Circular Economy Transition (CE) in Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) | ATHENA RC | This project aims at aligning Circular Economy (CE) strategy adaptation in Greece and Bulgaria with its strategic documents and identified sectoral strengths and needs, set in the individual country’s Smart Specialization Strategies (S3). | Circular Economy |
| Circular Learning Hub | ATHENA RC | This project works on an awareness-intention-action path fostering problem-owners in the ecosystem to a deeper understanding of circular thinking. On the basis of a debiasing experiment, the co-creation of innovative learning and nudging initiatives on circular thinking and investing will be carried out in 2020. | Circular Economy |
| Deep Demonstration in the port of Piraeus | ATHENA RC, PPA, IOBE, Climate-KIC | It seeks the transformation of the port of Piraeus to a green and innovative port, delivering high-quality services to the global value chain, driving economic prosperity, maintaining a healthy environment, and enabling thriving communities, through shared aspirations and collective accountability.
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Circular Economy & Energy Transition |
| Investor Marketplace | Climate-KIC | The investor marketplace is the most comprehensive overview of investment opportunities into early-stage startups. The deal flow stems from EIT Climate-KIC’s Accelerator program, the largest climate-focused acceleration program in the world. | Circular Economy & Energy Transition |
| SCIPPER | AUTH | SCIPPER is a European project which aims at deploying state-of-art and next-generation measurement techniques to monitor emissions of vessels under their normal operation. | Energy transition |
| Red Sea Projectin Saudi Arabia | NTUA | The Red Sea Project will set new standards in sustainable development and exceed expectations to create a unique travel experience and unforgettable memories. | Energy Transition |
We also enjoyed the inspiring presentation of Angelica Kemene (Co-founder, CEO, Optima-X Maritime Innovation HUB) on Green Squadron, the tool to reduce and calculate emissions at ports. This tool supports real-time optimization of container transportation, use of drones to track real facts in harbours, scalable and low carbon impact blockchain to certify documents and whole supply chain process, exhaust captors for precise CO2-sulfurs-particules monitoring, engines efficiency to reduce consumption and emissions, incubation of transportation start-ups to accelerate the rise of most deserving ones.
The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Shipping seeks to create synergies and explore opportunities, which will integrate social, economic and environmental benefits for the involved parties. To reach this goal, a clear vision needs to be co-designed in the next meetings.
The fourth meeting will take place on Friday the 30th of October from 3 pm to 5 pm. In this meeting, we will focus on the case of the Port of Piraeus!
Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) is working together with EIT Climate-KIC, the innovation community and local stakeholders (ATHENA RC, IOBE, NKUA, AUEB, Thalassa Foundation and the Municipality of Piraeus) on a holistic (systemic) approach, adding environmental and social dimensions (e.g. zero-emissions, circularity, community engagement) and supporting the position of PPA as a proactive and future-proof business and innovation hub. The project is named “Maritime Hubs Deep Demonstration: Transforming the Port of Piraeus into an Innovative, Net-Zero carbon, Circular, Inclusive, Resilient Port”
This is a multi-year collaboration programme with EIT Climate-KIC, a major European innovation agency and community trained on the climate emergency, which aims to support the transformation of the port of Piraeus to a green and innovative port, delivering high-quality services to the global value chain, driving economic prosperity, maintaining a healthy environment, and enabling thriving communities, through shared aspirations and collective accountability.
Find more at: http://unsdsn.gr/global-roundtable-for-sustainable-shipping-2
The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Shipping and Ports team:
Professor School of Economics, Director Sustainable Development Institute, Director ReSEES Lab, Athens University of Economics and Business
President-Elect, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
Director, EIT Climate-KIC Hub Greece @ ATHENA RC
Co-Chair, UN SDSN Greece
Prof. Andreas Papandreou
Professor, Director of the Political Economy of Sustainable Development Lab, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Co-Chair, UN SDSN Greece
PhD student, Athens University of Economics and Business
Manager, UN SDSN Greece and EIT Climate-KIC Hub Greece @ ATHENA RC
Researcher, ATHENA RC
