Towards a Green Port Model: Helping ports to make progress in the direction of sustainability

Context: The SDGs highlight the need to make modes of transport sustainable. Ports are of significant economic importance, but they must also be aligned with sustainability. To help solve this problem, green ports are an option. Objective: This research aims to propose an evaluation model for a green port, with indicators and sub-indicators. A total of 10 indicators were mapped from the literature, with a group of 45 sub-indicators. Contribution: This research contributes to this topic in the literature by presenting a set of relevant indicators and helping ports progress towards their sustainability-related objectives. Conclusions: It is concluded that the most relevant indicators in the literature are: Emissions reduction and efforts to ensure Energy Management; Air quality; Noise pollution; Water management; Cost and savings; Materials, inputs and resources; Indoor environmental quality; Construction project management; Social indicators; and Port operations management. Furthermore, the indicators and sub-indicators were verified by experts in the port sector and applied using documentary sources from internationally recognized ports.