TECHNOLOGY VIEWPOINT

Digitalisation must be at the core of the sustainability strategy of ports – to become green, they must first be smart, says Grant Ingram

of Innovez One

Grant Ingram CEO for the UK and EMEA, Innovez One

SMART MOVES

Given their unique role as hubs at the interface of land and sea, ports are critical enablers for decarbonisation in the maritime world and beyond. Ports that move early on decarbonisation will be the ones best placed to benefit from new growth opportunities, but digitalisation must be at the core of their sustainability strategy.

A recent white paper from the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH), The Mindshift to Innovation in Ports, highlights how important it is for ports to innovate and reinvent themselves in what has now become a highly competitive and uncertain business environment. “In a constantly-changing economic context, ports must adapt to both new international and national regulatory requirements, strong international competition, accelerated digitalization and major climate and environmental challenges. This has led ports to work in adjacent business lines, beyond cargo traffic and supply chain, and to explore new opportunities,” the authors point out.

The scale of change required to meet global decarbonisation goals is undeniable, and ports play a central role in the transition, being complex ecosystems that sit at the heart of supply chains.

More than hubs where goods are received and handled, ports are set to become agents of change. Ports from around the world have already embarked on that journey, innovating to improve their own operational efficiency and offering new services and infrastructure to support the green transition.

These early movers on decarbonisation are attracting the attention of clean energy and green shipping projects, as well as supply chain heavyweights looking to reduce their first and last mile emissions. For example, the offshore wind market is booming in the US, the UK and elsewhere, and there is a potentially big market for ports near offshore wind farms to provide renewable shore power to service vessels.

There are also opportunities for forward-thinking ports to push ahead of the competition and embed themselves

into the new supply chains that are emerging for fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen, and for the transport of carbon dioxide as part of carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chains.

The divide between ports that embrace collaboration, digitalisation and sustainability and those who don’t will increasingly create two classes of ports going forward. Ports operate in a highly competitive environment where they will be increasingly judged by their sustainability credentials and their capacity to support emerging green supply chains. Early movers will be rewarded with significant business opportunities.

But for those who fail to take the first steps in this transition today, there is a real risk of failing to meet the efficiency and sustainability goals of their customers, regulators and investors in the near future. In other words, these ports risk being left on the wrong side of what is rapidly becoming a great sustainability divide.

Agents of change

The ports leading the collaborative evolution of the sector are proving that they can be hubs of innovation and become agents of change beyond their own borders.

For instance, the Port of Long Beach recently demonstrated the evolution it has underway and its ability to collaborate to effect change beyond its borders. Heavy-duty electric trucks servicing San Pedro Bay port terminals in the Port of Long Beach can now charge for free at the Port of Long Beach after it opened the first two public charging stations in the nation for the vehicles.

Southern California will need a network of thousands of heavy-duty charging stations, not only at the ports, but all around the region as the US moves to renewable energy to fight climate change. With this initiative, the port is helping to accelerate adoption of the technology. The port aims to have zero-emissions terminal operations by 2030 and zero-emissions trucking by 2035. Diesel emissions from trucks have already been cut by as much as 97% compared to 2005 levels.

In another example of port evolution, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authorityled Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) Program has launched its sixth season of large-scale underwater noise reduction initiatives. The program aims to support the recovery of the region’s population of killer whales.

As part of the ECHO Program’s 2022 measures, ship operators are encouraged to slow down or stay distanced while transiting through

key areas of the whale’s critical habitat. To date, more than 80 marine transportation organisations have confirmed their intention to participate. Since 2017, the ECHO Program’s underwater noise reduction initiatives in the Salish Sea have encouraged thousands of ship operators to modify their sailing pattern, thereby reducing underwater sound intensity by up to 55% in key killer whale foraging areas.

At land and at sea, across all the different industries and communities they are part of, ports have a wide range of tactics at their disposal when it comes to driving sustainability.

Change begins with oneself

Unfortunately, many ports still don’t see sustainability as an immediate priority. Some may be aware of the importance to act but unsure of what tangible steps forward to take. They may be thinking that issues related to efficiency and congestion are more urgent.

What these ports fail to realise is that measures to boost efficiency, tackle congestion, and improve sustainability all go hand in hand. And the first step to improve all of these areas is digitalisation.

For ports, achieving sustainability poses challenges that are as multifaceted as they are far reaching. More than just places where goods are loaded and unloaded, ports are complex ecosystems of their own, where numerous moving pieces such as pilots, tugs, trucks and service boats are dispatched to vessels as they arrive or depart. Reducing the amount of carbon emitted by these service fleets requires organising them in the most efficient way possible.

Where manual processes, spreadsheets and whiteboards fall short, AI-powered algorithms can solve complex puzzles and calculate optimal resource allocation – taking into account additional constraints such as the need to assign pilots to specific vessel types and sizes depending on their licence, the types and number of tugboats required for each job, and the shuttles needed to take the pilots to the correct boarding grounds.

By making the most of resources, digital solutions eliminate unnecessary journeys and reduce the overall distance travelled, which makes a significant difference on a port’s own emissions.

For example, the implementation of Innovez One’s marineM AI-powered scheduling system at the Indonesian port of Tanjung Priok, the 22nd busiest port in the world, reduced the overall distance travelled during tug and pilot operations by 20%. It continues to save the port US$155,000 in fuel costs annually. Not only has the port seen tangible benefits in reduced congestion, but the system has also had a payback time of just six months.

Ports as enablers

Crucially, the benefits of digitalisation are felt beyond the port itself – they also help slash waiting times and emissions from visiting ships.

AI-powered algorithms can adapt to any changes in vessels’ estimated arrival times, updating schedules and reallocating resources at a speed unmatched by manual systems. This gives ports the agility needed to respond to problems or delays elsewhere in the supply chain and ensure that everything is in place to welcome ships exactly then they arrive.

This flexibility is key to minimising the amount of time that vessels spend queueing outside ports, with their engines on. In Tanjung Priok, MarineM reduced average waiting times for visiting ships from 2.4 hours to 30.6 minutes, slashing emissions further while also boosting port performance.

Digitalisation will also help ports in some of the pivotal strategic decisions that they must take to achieve sustainability. Granular data on operations will provide the vital insights that these ports need to make the best possible decisions on critical investments in new infrastructure or technology that will be needed to compete in an increasingly decarbonised world.

Collaboration played a major role in the ambitions laid out at COP27. Collaboration between ports, governments and other stakeholders led to major announcements about the development of green shipping corridors to facilitate the uptake of net-zero carbon bunker fuels.

The US and Canada announced a Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence Seaway System Green Shipping Corridor Network Initiative. The US and the UK also announced support for the establishment of green shipping corridors between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach and C40 Cities began discussions on establishing a green and digital shipping corridor between Singapore and the San Pedro Bay port complex. The Northwest Seaport Alliance also announced a partnership with the Busan Port Authority.

A collaborative journey

To become a reality, these green shipping corridors projects will inevitably rely on smart, green ports capable of delivering the necessary infrastructure and efficiency to achieve net zero themselves, and to put the right measures in place to help their visiting ships to minimise their emissions.

They will provide an early glimpse into the cleaner supply chains of the future and just how interdependent and connected they will have to be to achieve these goals.

Time is of the essence. Given the critical role of ports in the global trading system and their potential exposure to climate related damage, disruptions and delays, enhancing their climate resilience is a matter of strategic socio-economic importance for the global economy and society as a whole.

As the fundamentals of the global economy change and evolve, ports must evolve too to support their communities. To build the foundations of a more sustainable future, they must embrace digitalisation today.