EcoPorts News

The ports of Rotterdam (NL), Valencia (ES), Port de commerce de Lorient (FR) and Piombino (IT) receive high environmental recognition

10 Nov 2015

During its General Assembly in Brussels on Tuesday 10 November, ESPO was delighted to congratulate the ports of Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Valencia (Spain), Port de commerce de Lorient (France) and Piombino (Italy) for having recently achieved the Port Environmental Review System (PERS) certification.

ESPO Chairman Santiago Garcia-Milà presented the PERS certificates to the port representatives that were attending the meeting, Mr Ramon Gómez-Ferrer (Port of Valencia) and Victor Schoenmakers (Port of Rotterdam).


Both Valencia and Rotterdam are long-standing supporters of the EcoPorts approach and involved in the development of the EcoPorts tools since the very beginning. The Port of Valencia gets awarded with PERS for the fourth time (2003, 2006, 2013, and 2015), whilst the Port of Rotterdam gets PERS certified for a second time after its initial certification in 2008.

The Port de commerce de Lorient achieves PERS certification for the first time and ESPO welcomes it to the distinguished PERS holders’ network. Furthermore, the Italian port of Piombino get re-certified after its initial PERS implementation and certification in 2012.

ESPO is delighted to congratulate all four ports for this significant achievement. “We are delighted with the increased interest shown to PERS by European port authorities and we encourage all ports within our membership to implement the scheme and receive a certification”, said ESPO Secretary General, Isabelle Ryckbost.

PERS is the only port sector specific environmental management standard. It is the flagship product of the EcoPorts network and is offered as part of ESPO services to its members through the EcoPorts website. Compliance with the PERS standard is independently assessed by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance and the certificate has a validity of two years. There are currently 25 ports in Europe that hold a valid PERS certificate.

Picture caption (from left to right): Antonis Michail (EcoPorts), Victor Schoenmakers (Port of Rotterdam), Ramon Gómez-Ferrer (Port of Valencia), Santiago Garcia-Mila (ESPO Chairman) and Isabelle Ryckbost (ESPO Secretary General).