Gothenburg Port Authority Sustainability assessment of a port Master’s Thesis in the Master’s Programme MARITIME MANAGEMENT HANNA VARVNE EVANTHIA-GIOULA TSELEPI Department of Technology Management and Economics Division of ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Gothenburg, Sweden 2018 Report No. E 2018:103 MASTER’S THESIS E 2018:103 Gothenburg Port Authority Sustainability assessment of a port HANNA VARVNE EVANTHIA-GIOULA TSELEPI Tutor, Chalmers: ANNA NYSTRÖM CLAESSON Tutor, company: EDVARD MOLITOR Department of Technology Management and Economics Division of ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Gothenburg, Sweden 2018 Gothenburg Port Authority Sustainability assessment of a port HANNA VARVNE EVANTHIA-GIOULA TSELEPI © HANNA VARVNE; EVANTHIA-GIOULA TSELEPI, 2018. Master’s Thesis E 2018: 103 Department of Technology Management and Economics Division of ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS Chalmers University of Technology SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden Telephone: + 46 (0)31-772 1000 Cover: [Overviewing photo of Port of Gothenburg (Gothenburg Port Authority, 2018a)] Chalmers Reproservice Gothenburg, Sweden 2018 Summary Sustainable development is an urgent issue of high significance for modern societies. Ports around the world as well as part of the local societies also deal with sustainability issues. The sustainability work performed by each port needs to be assessed and report. For this the sustainability report can be used. In this master thesis, a sustainability assessment of the Gothenburg Port Authority has been conducted aiming to investigate the link between organisational structure and the sustainability work performed in the organisation. The sustainability report of the Gothenburg’s Port Authority has been used as a tool to assess the organisation’s sustainability work. The two methods chosen for this report have been a literature review regarding sustainability assessments and indicators as well as a series of interviews to get a better understanding of the organisation. The study is limited to sustainability work performed by ports and more specifically the Gothenburg Port Authority. The produced results show that the organisational structure has an impact on the sustainability work. The format of the sustainability report also needs to develop further to become a useful tool for future strategic decision-making processes. Additionally, the organisation’s identity has an impact on the sustainability report. The results have been analysed and discussed and suggestions have been proposed for future improvements to the Gothenburg Port Authority. Preface We want to thank out supervisor Edvard Molitor and Daniela Fjellman at the Gothenburg Port Authority and our supervisor Anna Nyström Claesson at Chalmers for their great support during the work with this thesis. We would also like to thank all the people who were interviewed for sharing their time and thoughts with us; it is the foundation of this report and has given us great insights in the organisation. We are also grateful to everyone else working at the Gothenburg Port Authority for their warm welcome of us as students which made our time at the office a great experience. Finally, we would like to thank our friends and family for cheering us on and supporting us throughout the process. I Table of Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................................. I Preface ...................................................................................................................................................... I List of figures ........................................................................................................................................ IV List of tables .......................................................................................................................................... IV 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 2 Literature ........................................................................................................................................ 2 2.1 Sustainability Assessments ...................................................................................................... 2 2.1.1 Development of Sustainability Assessments ................................................................... 2 2.1.2 Sustainability Assessment Tools ..................................................................................... 3 2.1.3 UN Sustainable Development Goals ............................................................................... 4 2.2 Sustainability Reporting .......................................................................................................... 5 2.2.1 General Trends in Sustainability Reporting .................................................................... 5 2.2.2 Global Reporting Initiative - GRI Reporting ................................................................... 6 2.3 Sustainable businesses ............................................................................................................. 7 2.3.1 Changing Context for Businesses .................................................................................... 7 2.3.2 Sustainable Business Models .......................................................................................... 7 2.3.3 Creating Sustainable Value ............................................................................................. 8 2.3.4 Business Strategies to Create Sustainable Value ............................................................. 8 2.3.5 Activities to Create Sustainable Value ............................................................................ 9 2.3.6 The Greening of Organisations Enabling Sustainability Strategies .............................. 10 2.4 Sustainability in Ports ............................................................................................................ 11 2.4.1 Definition of a port and port activities........................................................................... 11 2.4.2 Sustainability in Ports and the Municipality.................................................................. 12 2.4.3 Sustainability Assessments of Ports .............................................................................. 12 2.4.4 Sustainability and Environmental Initiatives for Ports .................................................. 12 2.5 The Gothenburg Port Authority as a Case ............................................................................. 13 2.5.1 The Gothenburg Port Authority Owners’ Directive, Vision and Mission ..................... 14 2.5.2 Operations and Activities in the Gothenburg Port Authority ........................................ 15 2.5.3 Timeline of Greening Activities in the Gothenburg Port Authority .............................. 17 2.5.4 Contextualising the Gothenburg Port Authority ............................................................ 18 2.5.5 Contextualised Sustainability in Missions and Visions ................................................. 20 3 Method .......................................................................................................................................... 21 3.1 Theoretical perspectives ........................................................................................................ 21 3.1.1 Grounded theory ............................................................................................................ 21 3.1.2 Sustainability assessment through sustainability reporting ........................................... 21 3.2 Data collection ....................................................................................................................... 22 3.2.1 Literature search ............................................................................................................ 22 3.2.2 Interviews ...................................................................................................................... 22 3.3 Data management .................................................................................................................. 24 3.3.1 Managing data collected through interviews ................................................................. 24 3.3.2 Managing indicators form the literature search ............................................................. 24 4 Results .......................................................................................................................................... 25 4.1 Indicators ............................................................................................................................... 25 4.1.1 Environmental Indicators .............................................................................................. 26 4.1.2 Social indicators ............................................................................................................ 27 4.1.3 Economic indicators ...................................................................................................... 28 4.1.4 Indicators disclosed by the Gothenburg Port Authority ................................................ 29 4.2 Interviews .............................................................................................................................