June 2011 (pdf) - Port Nelson

Port Nelson Limited report. June 2011. Page 2
Environmental measures
on a global scale
Earlier this year Port Nelson Limited Chief Executive Martin Byrne was appointed as the New Zealand
director on the board of the International Association of Port and Harbours (IAPH), succeeding former
Ports of Auckland CEO Jens Madsen in the position. The IAPH is a global alliance representing around
230 ports in 90 countries. Its membership collectively handles around 60 percent of the world’s sea-borne
traffic and almost 80 percent of global container traffic. It is a non-profitmaking and non-governmental
organisation with headquarters in Tokyo. The IAPH is working on a number of issues facing the maritime
industry, including the World Climate Initiative, which centres on encouraging ports to promote
environmentally sensitive behaviour. Martin attended the IAPH conference in Busan,
South Korea from 23-27 May, which he says highlighted a number of key issues facing the
maritime industry, in particular environmental issues facing port operators:
editorial
“Often when travelling internationally in our industry one can be
slightly overawed at the sheer size of port operations in the likes of
Hong Kong, Singapore and Busan, but what you generally always
find when you sit down and talk to people from those ports is that
we all face the same issues, the only thing that changes is the scale.
This was particularly brought home on the penultimate day of the
conference when the CEO of the Port of Amsterdam spoke about
port redevelopment issues that they are working through. Her key
point was that noise is the next major issue that port operators face
around the world. Given the experiences we have had here in Nelson
in recent years in terms of working through the noise issues with our
closest neighbours, it was heartening to see that our approach of
engagement with the residents and working through issues as they
arise was the one that had brought the most progress overseas.
Representatives from ports such as Rotterdam, Oakland, Melbourne
and Sydney spoke about the work they have done to interact with
their local communities around a raft of environmental issues, from
noise through to air emissions; while at the far end of the scale, in
larger ports such as LA, they have moved to having large container
vessels utilising shore power while alongside.
The two yearly IAPH conferences are an excellent opportunity for
port operators from around the world to get together and discuss a
myriad of issues across the board and to share ideas and approaches.
As I have mentioned, while the scale of the challenges may change
from port to port and country to country, in essence the core issues
remain the same and the opportunity to network with industry
peers and share ideas cannot be underestimated.
We are justifiably proud of our efforts in the environmental side of
things here at PNL, but also recognise we still have a long way to
go to build on the work done to date. We are certainly committed
to doing that and to continue punching above our weight on this
issue.”
Port Nelson Limited CEO
At this year’s IAPH conference the environmental work done within Port Nelson was recognised with our Infrastructure Manager, Matt McDonald, winning the Busan
Open Award essay competition. The competition run by IAPH was open to all member ports, and in being chosen as the winner Matt fended off competition from
Spain, South Africa, Australia, Kenya, Belgium and Iran, among others. Matt is second from left in the photo, next to President of IAPH, Gichiri Ndua from Kenya, centre.
Port Nelson Limited • 10 Low Street, Port Nelson • PO Box 844, Nelson, New Zealand
Tel +64 3 548 2099 • Fax +64 3 546 9015 • www.portnelson.co.nz
RePort Nelson is a triennial publication produced for Port Nelson Limited by:
• Nelson Media Agency - www.nelsonmedia.co.nz • SeeReed Visual Communication - www.seereed.co.nz
Photography: Thanks to Jacquetta Bell, Troy Dando and Tim Cuff for their photos in this issue.