Research by Assistant Professor Tan Kar Way from SMU School of Information Systems (SIS) and her colleagues at DHL-SMU Green Transformation Lab (GTL) on energy sustainability efforts in maritime terminal operations has garnered the Special Mention Award by the Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI).

Prof Tan received the award from Mr Teo Siong Seng, Chairman of the SMI Board and Governing Council, at the Singapore Maritime Institute Forum on 10 October 2016. The Forum is a major annual event for SMI to share and discuss important issues that impact the maritime industry.

Titled ‘A framework for evaluating energy sustainability efforts in maritime terminal operations: A study with Singapore and selected International ports’, Prof Tan’s research was voted the top policy research project at the SMI Research Showcase which was held in April 2016 to raise the profile and awareness of maritime and offshore R&D activities and to recognise research excellence.

As Singapore moves towards developing a Clean and Green Port of the future, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and GTL conducted a joint research on the latest developments and sustainability initiatives at the world’s leading ports which focused on energy management on the land-side terminal operations.

Port regulators and operators of leading ports around the world are increasingly paying more attention to such issues as environmental sustainability, energy consumption, air quality in the port areas, emissions of greenhouse gases associated with operations, and sources of clean energy.

This research by Prof Tan and her team produced an evaluation framework which defined the key parameters to be used to capture energy sustainability efforts based on processes at the terminals.

Prof Tan said, “We are pleased to have won recognition for this study which will help Singapore formulate policies for its Next Generation Port 2030. The framework aims to cover transparency measurements, best practices, technologies and policies that allow business units at terminal operators to be accountable for their energy consumption. With this approach, guidelines, policies and targets can be set to help Singapore’s maritime operations move towards sustainable green growth.”

Prof Tan and her team visited and worked with a local container port operator, bulk port operator, cruise terminal and a private oil terminal. They also spoke with Port of Rotterdam Authority and Port of Antwerp Authority and solicited their feedback on the framework. Publicly available sources and scholastic papers on many top ports in the world were collated by the team to study their sustainability efforts, including Antwerp, Rotterdam, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Yokohama, San Diego, Miami, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Two detailed case studies on Massvlakte 2 APM Terminal at Port of Rotterdam and Middle Harbor at Port of Long Beach were studied and presented in the research study.

[Photo: Prof Tan Kar Way received the Special Mention award for producing a maritime energy evaluation framework to assess energy sustainability efforts in maritime terminal operations. Presenting the award to Prof Tan was Mr Teo Siong Seng of Singapore Maritime Institute at the SMI Forum.] (Photo: SMI)