In our Strategic Plan 2021-2025, sustainability is an inextricable part of our business operations and ambition. This way, we want to extend the purely commercial relationship to joint broader value creation; “Be Part of a Better Port”. One of the ways to actively promote this sustainable transition for the port is during the business establishment process. Companies in the port are the backbone and the face of the port. They make an essential contribution to the realization of our ambitions.
Establishing new customers or extending, amending and renewing existing contracts are important moments to explore the extent to which a party operates in a responsible manner, whether the customer is in line with our sustainability ambitions and willing to make an active contribution to these ambitions. It is the moment when we set expectations and reach agreements in contracts or when we can set joint sustainability targets.
Therefore, in 2022, we developed criteria and clauses on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to be integrated as part of contacts with new customers or of extending, amending and renewing existing contracts. This is a tailor-made approach. Using a questionnaire, we engage with customers on issues such as energy consumption, local sustainability and innovation agenda, as well as on the origin and degree of sustainability of the raw materials and goods they procure and/or process.
Based on the level of ambition we jointly set, we arrive at a set of contractual agreements on local and supply chain sustainability. We fine-tune sustainability goals, express mutual expectations, and record respective agreements in contracts. Our guiding principle here is continuous improvement. In this way, we can make the most of our (limited) influence to make our port area and trade chains more sustainable and counteract harmful impacts of raw materials and goods flows on climate, nature, and human well-being.