"Port Environmental Manager" training phase reaches its conclusion Nurturing young environmental port managers…yet another of the achievements under the ECOPORT8 project. “Transforming the shipping lanes of Corridor 8 into environmental corridors” is easier said than done without the help of professionals, able to manage port areas in accordance with good practices in environmental sustainability. This is the key concept of the "Port Environmental Manager" course which kicked off on September 12th and ran for the next week and a half at the Bari headquarters of the Universus

Consortium. The programme, aimed at 18 young budding managers from port authorities from the six project partner countries (Italy, Albania, Montenegro, Romania, Greece and Bulgaria), saw the closing stages of its 60 hour classroom phase in Bari, and will now see the rolling out of the project work phase (and the last 80 hours) leading up to December. This final step will see course participants able to test out their new skills, practicing and implementing sustainable services in the ports of Bari, Igoumenitsa, Patras, Varna, Durres and Constanza, with the scientific support of tutors and managers from

the relevant port authorities playing the role of mentor. The environmental face of ports, managing environmental emergencies and scrutinising standards of European legislation (Regulation EMAS, ISO 14001 and ISO 19011), were just some of the topics covered during the classroom phase led by experts in the field. Study visits to the ports of Bari and Monopoli and to the LIC (Coastal Engineering) Laboratory run by the Polytechnic of Bari, gave life

to the more practical aspects of port activities and showcased tools for monitoring environmental indicators. The training course has played a fundamental role in complementing the previous phases of the ECOPORT8 project, providing future port managers with the skills necessary for the effective environmental management of ports and towards building a “sustainable interaction between ports themselves”. Ultimately, the project aims to provide the tools for the establishment of environmental guidelines for ports and the drafting of a

final protocol of intent. As a bedrock to the project idea, the concept of cooperation between countries was high on the agenda with great emphasis being given to the development of team building skills through specific workshops during the training course as well as through the support that will be available during the of project work phase, backed up by an e-learning project platform, managed by Universus, in which students, tutors and mentors will be able to share their actions in situ.

“There is a total lack of networking in the field of environmental management among ports in Europe”, underlines Prof. Leonardo Damiani of the Department of Water Engineering at the Polytechnic of Bari and Lead Partner in the ECOPRT8 project “whilst ports are a competitive reality, they must either decide together to put into place policies for environmental safeguarding, or the battle will be lost”.

By F. Colasuonno (Universus Communications Office - ECOPORT8 Project)

Bari, 23/09/2011