Challenges and opportunities in implementing green initiatives for port terminals

The new Green Management Practices (GMP) paradigm has emerged as an effective management tool for firms to achieve superior performance and to deal with both economic and environmental aspects by applying ecological criteria. This is particularly true for port terminals where environmental issues are becoming critical due to the increase in freight volumes. Accordingly, this article proposes a flexible solution capable of recreating (after preliminary customization) a port terminal and while taking into consideration the main factors affecting sustainability of port operations. This approach provides the user with an advanced decision support system (DSS) for investigating managerial and policy implications in an eco-friendly framework. This work is positioned to culminate in the development of a software DSS whose aim is to support business decisions based on the environmental impact analysis of processes and activities performed in the course of the life-cycle of the port terminal, and to simulate and compare design alternatives in terms of both environmental impact and economic sustainability.