On 28 March ESPO was delighted to congratulate the ports of Piraeus, Bremen/Bremerhaven and Aqaba for achieving the Port Environmental Review System (PERS) certification. ESPO Secretary General Isabelle Ryckbost handed over the PERS certificates to the port representatives, Mr Yiorgos Anomeritis (Piraeus), Mr Jochen Kress (Bremen/Bremerhaven) and Mr Abd Al Shiyab (Aqaba) respectively. The Port Environmental Review System (PERS) is the only port sector specific environmental management standard and the flagship product of EcoPorts. The certification ceremony took place during an ESPO/EcoPorts workshop on waste reception facilities that was hosted by the Piraeus Port Authority and that gathered more than 60 experts in the field.
Piraeus Port Authority has been a long a loyal supporter of EcoPorts since back in 2004 when the port was first certified by PERS. Since then, Piraeus has been continuously demonstrating its environmental management credentials and on 28 March was re-certified with PERS for the 4th consecutive time. The ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven joined first the network of PERS certificate holders in 2011 and were now successfully recertified after the positive evaluation of their application by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance. The port of Aqaba in Jordan is a new comer in the EcoPorts network and only the second non EU port that achieves PERS certification over time.