About The Port
The Port of Dover is committed to pro-actively managing and delivering a sustainable port operation that will minimise environmental impacts, promote good environmental practice and ensure the service of the Port’s future generations.
The environmental challenges of the Port are more likely to be overcome if the Port community works together. An ethic of “compliance plus” has therefore been embedded by promoting a culture of environmental awareness and corporate social responsibility amongst all staff and Port users.
The Port of Dover was the first port in Europe to be certified for its Environmental Management System (EMS) through the Ports Environmental Review System (PERS) in 2002. The Port’s EMS identifies and controls the significant environmental aspects and impacts of its operations and delivers environmental objectives and targets to reduce the impacts of those activities. In 2008, the Port was certified to the internationally recognised ISO14001 standard which requires demonstration of continual improvement in environmental performance. The Port still maintains this standard.
Reducing the Port community’s carbon footprint is important and the Port of Dover consistently works to reduce the carbon output from its operations.
The Port of Dover is a Carbon Trust standard bearer that has achieved a 41% carbon reduction since the carbon management programme commenced in 2006.
The energy used to power, heat and cool the Port is the predominant emissions source in its carbon footprint. As a result, the top priority is to tackle energy consumption and the Port has a yearly 5% reduction target. To achieve this, the Port:
In order to safeguard the Port environment the Port of Dover carries out extensive pollution prevention training. This training aims to increase staff awareness and the reporting of environmental occurrences.
As part of the Port’s commitment to preventing pollution, a high level of preparation is maintained in order to cope with any incident in the Port liable to cause environmental harm. Pollution incidents are monitored and managed through an occurrence reporting system in order to do this, which allows trends to be examined and ensures that training and equipment are appropriate.
The Port of Dover is focused on improving its waste management process with most of its waste streams being sent for recycling or reuse.
The Port of Dover continues to look for improvements in the management of the general waste stream produced from port operations, increasing landfill avoidance through the expansion of recycling initiatives and achieving energy production from waste through incineration.
Aware of the amenity value of the water within the harbour, the Port of Dover continues to monitor and achieve good water quality within the bathing area of the Port so that everybody can continue to enjoy the Port environment safely.
The results from this survey are published on the seafront.
The Port recognises that marine litter is a significant threat to the marine environment as well as impacting on community amenities. To help combat the issue locally in Dover, each year the Port supports the White Cliffs Countryside Partnership Shakespeare Beach Survey and Beach Clean as part of the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) Beachwatch Big Weekend.
The Port of Dover works with its partners to reduce noise, light and air pollution within and around the Port. Employing modern equipment, pollution levels are regularly monitored.
The Port of Dover has a formalised Environmental Policy of our values to deliver an improved environment and in order to provide a framework by which the sustainability of port development projects can be measured. The Port of Dover strives to ensure a sustainable approach to all Port projects. The Environmental Team reviews all major expenditure proposals in order to ensure that they align with the Board’s Environmental Policy.
The Safety, Environment and Quality Policies have been updated and combined into one Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Policy – see attached. This Policy was approved by the Board in March and has been signed by the Chief Executive, Doug Bannister to demonstrate the commitment of the organisation to these issues.
The new policy is aligned to the new direction set by Doug and outlines the organisations commitment to prevent injury and ill health, protect the environment, prevent pollution, satisfy particular requirements, including legal requirements and to continually improve.
