The circular economy project LOOP-Ports, coordinated by the Valenciaport Foundation and co-financed by EIT Climate-KIC in which the IEI participates, held its final conference on December 16, in which the partners presented the main results of this initiative to an audience of more than 75 attendees.
The conference, included as an official event of the World Circular Economy Forum Online, was opened by Emmanuelle Maire, Head of Unit for Sustainable Production, Products and Consumption of the European Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment, who explained the new Circular Economy Action Plan for Europe. Next, the technical director of the IAPH (International Association of Ports and Harbors), Antonis Michail, presented the Global Port Sustainability Program. The opening session was completed with the interventions of Rocío García, member of the Innovation team of the Valenciaport Foundation, who presented the objectives and general approaches of the LOOP-Ports project, and María Loloni, director of the maritime program of EIT Climate-KIC, who presented other projects developed within the framework of this program in the port maritime sector.
This was followed by two panels to present the results of the project, led by the leaders of the different activities. The first panel began with the presentation of the methodology used to classify the more than 450 European ports analyzed during the project and then reviewed some of the circular economy initiatives characterized by their high degree of replicability, such as the use of dredged material to produce cement; the use of biodegradable fishing nets or the valorization of fish by-products for the creation of cosmetics, animal feed and nutraceuticals. The first panel concluded with the presentation of a package of innovation recommendations for the European port sector obtained thanks to the analysis of 25 interviews conducted with port managers, logistics associations and public entities in which they were consulted about the levers of change that could accelerate the transition of European ports towards a more circular economy. Some of the recommendations put forward were the co-creation of solutions by port stakeholders and port clusters; the identification of the best technological and process practices applicable in the port sector, some of them inherited from other sectors; support to ports to find the necessary funding; the comprehensive assessment and development of specific policies and regulations for the port sector; the generation of sustainable business models over time supported by fiscal instruments and training designed ad-hoc for professionals in the sector.
During the second panel, the training pilots in circular economy given to more than 50 port professionals from Denmark, Italy and Spain were presented and a review was made of the 15 local, institutional and European workshops held during the development of the project in which more than 550 professionals from the sector from various countries of the European Union participated. In addition, the coordinator of LOOP-Ports, Jorge Lara, presented the seven business models studied during the project, paying special attention to their value proposition and their possible replicability and adoption in other ports. These business models deal with various topics such as industrial symbiosis applied to port industries; the supply of energy to ships; the recycling of different waste streams through pyrolysis; the use of hydrogen from renewable energies in ports; the recycling of maritime containers for alternative uses; the recovery of fiberglass from recreational boats and the recovery of heat from refrigerated warehouses in ports that move perishable goods.
Finally, Jorge Lara closed the conference by reemphasizing the three main objectives on which the circular economy in ports should focus: the first is to become aware of this problem; the second is to be able to offer specific training for port workers; and the third is to have real, replicable and sustainable business models that make the circular economy in ports a fact.
LOOP-Ports Project
The LOOP-Ports (Circular Economy Network of Ports) project, co-financed by EIT Climate-KIC and coordinated by the Valenciaport Foundation, has as its main objective to facilitate the transition towards a more circular economy in the port sector, where products, materials and resources are not considered as waste, but can be turned into sustainable business models that can be replicated in ports of similar characteristics.
Loop-Ports involves 13 partners from 6 EU member states (Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands): Valenciaport Foundation (coordinator); EIT Climate-KIC S.L.; Climate-KIC S.r.l.; Climate-KIC GmbH; Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU); NTU International A/S; Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO); Università di Bologna; Universität Hamburg; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; Universitat de València; Eco Environnement Ingenièrie (2EI) and Veolia Innove.
