The Sustainability of Oil Ports

An Holistic Framework for China

Xuemuge Wang, Michael Roe, Shaofeng Liu

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783030415198
• eBook ISBN: 9783030415204
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Energy Industry
• Index: Business

This book provides an original analysis of the problems of ensuring that oil ports are sustainable in the broadest sense of the concept including environmental, social, technical and resource aspects.

Taking China as its frame for analysis, chosen because of the authors' expertise and because it is the largest oil import country in the world, much of it by ship, it presents a detailed investigation of the issues that make up a sustainable port profile, using a variety of established statistical and operational techniques These are examined before an holistic model is derived. Recommendations are provided for future application both in China and elsewhere and also a range of ways suggested for how the framework could be adapted to other types of ports andlocations.

© The Author(s) 2020

X. Wang et al.The Sustainability of Oil Portshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41520-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction to the Port Sustainability Issue

Xuemuge Wang¹ , Michael Roe² and Shaofeng Liu²

(1)

Management School, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzen, China

(2)

Plymouth Business School, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

Xuemuge Wang (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Michael Roe

Email: [email protected]

Shaofeng Liu

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

Mirroring the increased interest in sustainability among governments and NGOs in recent years, ports have also started to focus on sustainability management, and are likely to pay increasing attention to port sustainability issues in the future (Port of Rotterdam 2017). Currently, the chief interest of ports lies in cost reductions and achieving profit maximisation, while minimising their negative environmental impact and potentially negative social impacts. In this way, sustainability management has become the latest but most urgent goal for ports, following decades in which they pursued a balanced approach between economic developments and avoiding environmental damage.

The term ‘sustainability’ is often accompanied by other terms focusing on similar matters such as ‘green’ and ‘low carbon,’ with which it significantly overlaps. However, there are notable differences between these concepts, and this study will limit its scope to ‘sustainability.’ In the 1960s, the concept of green movements started to enter many industries, especially ones that were growing quickly such as manufacturing and transportation. The notion of ‘green activity’ was developed to lower the environmental opportunity cost for fast-growing sectors of the economy, and the shipping industry (including ports) showed a positive attitude in response to this new trend. The concept of sustainability developed in the 1980s, which was a period in which people increasingly realised that economic growth not only had an effect on environmental issues, but was also relevant to social concerns (Giovannoni and Fabietti 2013). However, in the shipping industry, sustainability issues were not well studied until about 2010, and since 2015 sustainability has received ever more attention, given the imposition of increasingly strict environmental regulations, in combination with frequent environmentally focused appeals from governments and NGOs (such as the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Goals) (Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform 2015).

Since the introduction of the concept of sustainability in the late 1980s, along with the rise in research on economic and environmental matters as they relate to the green movement, experts now agree that the most urgent environmental concern is air emission. This has significantly worsened due to the industrial activities that took place in the mid-twentieth century, which have not only continued until now, but have actually sharply increased. In this way, after the notion of sustainability became solidified, the concept of a low-carbon economic approach attracted particular attention, especially in the shipping industry, which as a whole contributes to over 90% of worldwide CO₂ emissions (Vidal 2007). To improve this, the industry has embraced low-carbon ideas into daily operations, and as a result, despite the fact that low-carbon ideas were introduced later than sustainability, both green and low-carbon issues have been studied more than sustainability in the shipping industry.

As can be seen in Fig. 1.1, sustainability focuses on environmental, economic, and social issues; green emphasises the balance between environmental and economic factors; while low carbon is most relevant to air emission reduction (which is an environmental factor) and economic matters (Chang and Wang 2012; Chen et al. 2013; Cheng et al. 2013, 2015; Chiu et al. 2014; Shiau and Chuang 2015; Sislian et al. 2016; Port of Rotterdam 2017). As outlined in the Figure, the sustainability and green factors overlap with regards to the economy and the environment; green and low carbon both relate to air emissions and economic conditions; while sustainability and low carbon share a focus on air and the economy.

Fig. 1.1

The concepts ‘green’, ‘sustainability’, and ‘low carbon’. (Source: Chang and Wang 2012; Chen et al. 2013; Cheng et al. 2013, 2015; Chiu et al. 2014; Shiau and Chuang 2015; Sislian et al. 2016)

All three concepts have the environment and the economy in common, which might lead to confusion about which is more important. It is worth noting that economic issues have a strong focus in all three areas, and this results from the belief that contemporary industrialised economic activity is the source of most environmental damage (OECD 2015; Sahu and Choudhury 2005; Hiranandani 2012). Following this logic, given that the demand for economic activity is increasing, to solve urgent environmental issues, it is necessary to strike a balance between economic activity and the environment, in particular air quality.

Sustainability is mainly concerned with economic, environmental, and social factors, and it is this focus that forms the standard definition of the concept. Social factors, which were the most important, refer to all indicators that affect the living conditions of citizens. For instance, employment (new working positions generated by ports), safety issues (potential harm to citizens’ health), and knowledge delivery (knowledge required to fit to port positions, especially that are relevant to the handling of new technologies) (Zhang 2016). Led by the increasingly closed correlation between environmental damage and economic activities, their impacts are more and more infused into people’s daily life and consequently, social factors are increasingly important in port studies.

However, as sustainability theory has developed, new theories have been suggested, such as the four (4Ps) and five pillars (5Ps), which add new items of interest to the initial definition. According to the new theories, the most fundamental and unchanging aspect of sustainability is based on the dichotomy between the environment and economy; however, some have criticised this approach, asserting that environmental protection is nothing but a product of capitalistic marketing strategies (Bakari 2017; Hart et al. 2013). Despite this modern approach to sustainability, here we adopt the original definition of the term, which is limited to environmental, economic and social factors, because it remains the mainstream understanding of the concept, while the new theories have not yet received widespread recognition. The reason why the new approach has not yet been commonly accepted is that there remains little evidence that industry is ready to deal with all the aspects covered by the new theories, or for the new theories ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction to the Port Sustainability Issue
• 2. The Background to Oil Port Sustainability
• 3. Methodologies for Framework Development for Oil Ports Sustainability
• 4. A Qualitative Analysis of Oil Port Sustainability Frameworks
• 5. A Quantitative Analysis of Oil Port Sustainability Frameworks
• 6. A Framework for Oil Port Sustainability
• 7. Conclusions
• Back Matter