Greening The Ports

By Stephanie L. Johns

So what does it take to transport a pallet of goods from an overseas manufacturing plant to your neighborhood store? Well, here’s the short version: first the goods need to travel from the plant to a port and then be loaded into one of many dockside shipping containers. The containers are then stacked aboard a giant cargo ship. The long ocean journey to the destination port is next, followed by unloading via cranes onto the port terminal. There, it is handled by a variety of cargo-handling equipment and ultimately put on a truck or a train and hauled to your hometown. The process involves a vast network of companies, people, and equipment—most of which is unknown to the average consumer.

    In a world that is becoming increasingly connected through global trade, major shipping ports play a vital, but often invisible, role in the world economy. These ports also play an essential role in the future of sustainability for our planet. Essentially all international cargo travels through multiple ports and is handled by a variety of equipment. Since the entire process uses energy and produces emissions, it offers a major opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of international shipping through whole-system design and efficiency.

    Earlier this year, RMI conducted a large Innovation Workshop with the Port of Seattle, the Port of Tacoma, and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA). The idea was to take a fresh look at port operations, with the goal of developing solutions that reduce energy use and emissions in all aspects of operations—from ships arriving in port to the transport of goods via trucks and rail. Almost 70 participants attended the workshop, representing all facets of the shipping industry: the ports, unions, major shipping companies, electric utilities, the trucking industry, and various other areas. We began by examining port operations in sections, such as “goods arriving,” “goods in port,” and “goods leaving,” as well as overall business opportunities. Next we formed groups to focus on specifi c areas of implementation such as vessels, logistics, trucking, and port electrifi cation. In addition, another group considered “blue-sky” ideas for a potential port of the future, or, as we dubbed it, “NuPort.”

    The result? More than 40 ideas for solutions were generated, from electrifying yard hostlers to developing a “Logistics Guru” for coordinating information and even suggesting new business models for drayage trucks. Each major idea was developed along with an action plan for implemention. It’s worth noting that while some ideas are still being evaluated, others have already been adopted by the ports.

    One example is port electrification. The majority of cargo-handling equipment in ports is powered by diesel fuel. All this equipment operates near a central base of operations at the port, making it ideal for electrification. Workshop participants made suggestions on how to best use electricity for all port equipment, and they focused in on one ubiquitous item—the port yard hostler. A port yard hostler is essentially a Class-8 off -road truck. It consists of a small cab and a fifth-wheel to which different chassis are attached in order to haul containers around a terminal. The group evaluated the benefits of an all-electric hostler and proposed a project to design one, thus completely eliminating the on-site emissions for an entire class of equipment. Also, since converting energy from electricity in a battery to mechanical power is more efficient than burning fossil fuels, the overall emissions—well to wheels—are also reduced. Indeed, port yard hostlers can potentially operate completely on renewable power from the grid.

    Another major area for energy and resource efficiency improvements is logistics.  There is an obvious need for improving the flow and integration of information through the entire supply chain to facilitate the movement of goods through the port and over land via truck or rail. To improve the availability and flow of information, the group developed a “Logistics Guru” concept—a consolidated, comprehensive data-sharing system to better coordinate transportation information, thereby saving time and money, reducing idling time, and lowering emissions.

    And how about NuPort, the port of the future? The group exploring this concept considered what could happen given a clean slate when redesigning the shipping process. Group members examined multiple ways ships could be redesigned to improve the offloading of goods, ways the terminals and equipment could be designed so that there is a continuous flow of goods through the port (which means it is operating more efficiently), and using lighter materials for cranes (using lighter material reduces weight which reduces the amount of energy needed to move the cranes and eliminates the need for reinforcing the terminals as the ships and cranes get bigger and bigger).

    So where do we go from here? After such a successful Workshop, port officials have had a chance to evaluate the myriad ideas generated by the participants on their own merit, in addition to everything they were already doing to address their environmental impacts. And as they move toward a more sustainable, healthy future, RMI will be there to offer any additional help they might need.