Tools for evaluating environmental performance at Brazilian public ports: Analysis and proposal

Area of Science:

• Environmental Management
• Port Operations
• Sustainability Metrics

Background:

• The port sector requires enhanced management techniques for evaluating environmental performance.
• Current metrics in Brazilian public ports often exclude crucial economic factors.
• Assessing environmental performance is vital for sustainable port operations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore existing environmental performance metrics in Brazilian public ports.
• To propose a novel system of indicators that includes economic factors.
• To develop adaptable systems for environmental performance measurement in ports.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory research design.
• Analysis of metrics used by two state agencies and two port authorities in southern Brazil.
• Development of a two-part indicator system (simplified and advanced) due to data limitations.

Main Results:

• Economic factors are currently excluded from environmental performance assessment tools in Brazilian public ports.
• A proposed indicator system faced data deficiencies, leading to its division into simplified and advanced versions.
• The simplified system includes 7 indicators, while the advanced system comprises 5 indicators.

Conclusions:

• The proposed indicator systems can aid port authorities in environmental management decision-making.
• Further research should encompass more ports, including private ones, for a national perspective.
• Addressing data deficiencies is key to fully implementing comprehensive environmental performance metrics in ports.