Sustainability as an important aspect of competition: sustainable and green supply chains

The presentation introduces the sustainability concept for ports' development. Ports are indispensable nodes of supply chains, which competitiveness depends more and more on their sustainability. Green supply chains demand for ports with a good economic performance, environment-friendly and supported by local communities. Port sustainability needs will determine strategies and new competitiveness, and new influences of supply chain stakeholders on ports, by interdependencies, power unbalances, strategic options. The presentation's approach is based on the Triple Bottom Line Accounting, that is, the need to trive in economic, social and environmental conditions to maximise value to the community and pursue sustainable growth. Today, port authorities are pursuing a greening of port management in view of safeguarding their 'license to operate' and increasing their economic and environmental competitiveness. Therefore, there is a relevant attention on the port environmenal impacts (emissions, energy consumption and waste). On the other side, maritime industry emphasises the economic performance, with high levels of operational and financial efficiencies (port performance indicators). In particular, port efficiency is the ability of the port to reduce its costs through efficient use and utilization of infrastructure, the use of sophisticated equipment and efficient information technology. Finally, social factors play an important role in determining the impact of companies' and supply chains' operations on the society. Port operations directly affect the local community. A port with a high support of the community and political leaders is likely to be favoured in attracting trading partners and potential investors. The growing interest in sustainable supply chains is due to the pressures from various stakeholders, especially government regulators, community activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and global competition. These stakeholders demand for a multi-level governance, far advanced compared the usual "coordination & cooperation" approach, promoted by port authorities. Meeting the objectives of these stakeholders is an important way to secure the viability of long term port development plans. The better the governance system works, the higher the sustainability of the entire supply chain and of the port. port sustainability is associated to a close interaction with logistic actors outside port perimeter and to a comprehensive approach to port infrastructure and planning (i.e. accessibility by rail, multi-modality..)