European port certification: towards a sustainable, integrated supply chain

Co-construction and close collaboration for better adaptation to the European port context

This adaptation work was based on the Green Marine program’s nine existing performance indicators applicable to ports:

• Air Emissions – GHG & Air Pollutants;
• Aquatic Ecosystems;
• Community Impacts;
• Community Relations;
• Dry Bulk Handling and Storage;
• Environmental Leadership;
• Spill Prevention and Stormwater Management;
• Underwater Noise;
• Waste Management;

The framework’s adaptation has aimed to preserve each indicator’s scope and ambition, so that European ports would have to make the same effort to achieve each level beyond regulatory compliance as North American ports.

And it was in March 2025 that the co-construction phase was truly launched with the ai of building a framework specifically tailored to the European context. A working group was set up to review each of the nine North American indicators in detail.

Alongside the Green Marine Europe and Green Marine teams, it brought together:

• Eight ports: Marseille Fos, Nice, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Bilbao, Bayonne, Santander, Tonnay-Charente;
• Technical and sectoral experts: Ecocean, BlueSeeds, l’Agence de la transition écologique (Ademe, which is France’s ecological transition agency), ecoco2, la Direction générale des affaires maritimes, de la pêche et de l'aquaculture (DGAMPA, which is France’s directorate-general for maritime affairs, fisheries, and aquaculture);
• International NGOs: - IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) and AIVP (a global network of port cities).

Throughout 2025, this working group pursued several objectives:

• Ensure the existing European legislative and regulatory requirements (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Fit for 55, taxonomy);
• Take into consideration both cultural (notably concepts and vocabulary) and operational specificities;
• Ensure the feasibility of the performance indicators for ports of various size.

Indicators that catalyse environmental, social and societal concerns

Each of the nine indicators for ports has therefore been revised and adapted to the European context.

Green Marine Europe 2025 Program

Stakeholder Relations and Harmonisation of Practices: the framework’s social, societal and territorial aspects

The Stakeholder Relations and the Harmonisation of Practices indicators reflect the Green Marine Europe program’s ambition to fully integrate social, societal and territorial dimensions into the environmental assessment of ports. Both indicators reflect a clear desire to strengthen the territorial anchoring of ports and to structure their environmental responsibility.

The working group has carefully adapted the indicator’s terminology to accurately reflect Europe’s reality and context. To this end, the concept of communities is being replaced by stakeholders. This wording is more in line with the terminology used in European standards (CSRD, ESRS).

The goal of the Harmonisation of Practices indicator has been adapted to emphasise improving the quality of life of stakeholders by reducing local environmental nuisances. It relates to direct impacts such as noise, dust, light pollution, as well as others.

The Stakeholder Relations indicator focuses on structured dialogue between the port and its territorial ecosystem. It aims to assess the existence of formalised communication and consultation mechanisms, the capacity to process feedback, and the transparency of exchanges. As part of the stakeholder perception analysis to better understand the social acceptability of port authorities, European ports have suggested incorporating double materiality analysis into the indicator. Double materiality is a sustainability reporting principle that requires companies to disclose information from both a financial standpoint and from the assessed impacts on the environment, people, and society.

Waste Management: promoting the principle of circularity

The Waste Management indicator’s adaptation is primarily intended to reflect the desire of European ports to further promote the principle of circularity. With this in mind, the indicator’s objective has been adjusted, as has the scope of certain criteria, to encourage and recognize port initiatives involving circularity.

The purpose of this addition is to encourage ports to integrate a materials lifecycle approach into the management of construction work, operational waste, and material flows. This applies in particular to the management of dunnage, padding, and packaging materials, as well as waste generated during construction, excavation and demolition activities.

Air Emissions – GHG & Air Pollutants: ensuring compatibility with European references, tools, and calculation methods

Here the objective was twofold: firstly, to ensure alignment with European regulations, in particular the European Commission’s requirement for monitoring and reporting emissions (the Maritime MRV regulation); and, secondly, to guarantee the adequacy and compatibility of calculation methods, scope, and benchmarks with European tools such as the GHG Protocol, the International Maritime Organization’s Energy Efficiency Operational Index (IMO-EEOI), the Well-to-Wake emissions calculation, etc.

Environmental Leadership: recognizing and encouraging the role of ports

The Environmental Leadership indicator aims to recognize the ability of port authorities to influence the environmental practices of their users, tenants, and partners. It highlights their role as drivers in spreading a culture of sustainability beyond their direct sphere of influence.

In terms of continuity, this indicator’s role at the heart of the program has a significant multilayered dimension. The Environmental Leadership indicator highlights exemplary initiatives that are not covered by other performance indicators, and to give special recognition to ports that are committed to innovation.

In its European version, the indicator has been adjusted to reflect the regulatory and reference frameworks specific to the European Union, such as:

• The CEEQUAL framework (currently known as BREEAM Infrastructure, an international evidence-based sustainability assessment, rating and recognition system dedicated to civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping, and works carried out in public spaces);
• The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) on the disclosure of sustainability information;
• Directive (EU) 2019/1161 on clean vehicles, which sets a more ambitious target for the use of renewable or low-emission fuels for electric, hybrid or hydrogen vehicles.

Aquatic Ecosystems: a suitable indicator for going beyond compliance

The Aquatic Ecosystems indicator aims to improve the health of aquatic ecosystems in areas immediately and more extensively affected by the port. It also incorporates the concept of habitat restoration. This is particularly noteworthy given that coastal areas are among the richest in terms of biodiversity. Full recognition of the concept of restoration takes into the account the pressure that ports exert on coastlines and further positions the program’s benchmark at the forefront of consideration of a still-recent topic: ecological restoration in ports.

The revisions made to the indicator for European ports aim to clarify the actions taken beyond regulatory compliance in Europe, to better qualify voluntary and proactive approaches. For example, the indicator proposes the integration of specific best practices at Levels 2 to 5, including monitoring measures and environmental protocols, the sharing of environmental data, and concrete examples relating to protected species and sensitive habitats.

A note referring to the official European list of invasive alien species has also been added, specifying that their identification is the responsibility of scientists and the competent authorities.

The criterion relating to operational discharges from ships in port waters has been amended to explicitly limit it to discharges from scrubbers. The reuse and cleaning of sediments have been reworded and illustrated, while the concepts of natural and artificial habitats have been clarified, with particular attention paid to the materials used.

Dry Bulk Handling and Storage: framing operational requirements  

The objective of this performance indicator is to reduce cargo losses as well as the dust generated during the handling, transport, and storage of solid bulk materials.

The criteria define clearly the practices expected in this realm: the use of appropriate containers, protection against bad weather, and differentiated handling depending on the nature of the materials. In addition, ports have a note in the appendix specifying how compliance can be demonstrated, such as for example through visual inspections, internal procedures, or the inclusion of environmental clauses in terminal contracts. The criteria reinforce the preventive approach; the indicator’s structure has been adjusted by reclassifying the criteria and merging them in a targeted manner to better reflect the preventive measures actually deployed by ports, particularly for hazardous material flows.

Spill Prevention and Stormwater Management: the governance role of ports

The criteria for the Spill Prevention and Stormwater Management indicator specify the port's role as a governance actor in preserving water and soil quality, particularly when measures are implemented mainly, or even entirely, by tenants, especially terminal operators. The revision of the criteria has resulted in the addition of explicit notes at the beginning of the section and in the criteria concerned. For example, the scope of a Level 2 criterion has been clarified by a note, including a clarification of the concept of “riparian waters.” The scope of the criterion relating to substances has been clarified to confirm that it applies to lubricants, as fuels are already subject to a stricter regulatory framework. Finally, an explanatory note has been added to better define the concept of secondary retention, based on existing technical guides. In addition, the frequency of actions has been adjusted to ensure regular monitoring without imposing overly strict minimum thresholds on ports.

Underwater Noise: a consolidated framework adapted to the European context

The adjustments made to the Underwater Noise indicator have consolidated and clarified the existing framework without changing its fundamental objective. The examples have been updated to better reflect the European context, in particular by replacing the reference to “whales” with the broader reference to marine mammals, and by citing tools such as PELAGIS and other observatories.

The example of the whale map has been retained, while specifying that other tools may be used depending on the port context. The terminology has been harmonised, both in terms of the skills required and the types of noise taken into account (“impulsive” and “ambient”). IFAW operational recommendations have been incorporated, particularly on ship maintenance and participation in voluntary measures.

Building a truly integrated environmental performance approach

Green Marine Europe thus continues to assert its role as a catalyst in the environmental harmonisation of the European maritime sector.

The program sets ambitious, measurable targets with the precise criteria available to ports at the start of 2026, while emphasizing circularity and the importance of measuring actions and social and societal impacts. The first certification of European ports will take place in 2026, for the 2025 operating year.