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FEATURES
BUILDING A STRONGER GREENER SUPPLY CHAIN
In this article, Alex Pepper, group head of energy and environment, Peel Ports, examines how the pandemic will be used to build a more resilient supply chain in the future
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of a strong supply chain to ensure the vital flow of food, medicines and supplies in and out of the UK.
In a post-Covid world, operators and cargo owners will be seeking to understand how best to adjust their global business models to better safeguard themselves against shifts in the supply-demand balance.
Logistics businesses will likely review their supply chains to determine how best to protect from future disruption - this could manifest in practises such as on-shoring or near-shoring of supply.
A focus on supply chain reliance and risk management is likely to be a permanent legacy of the pandemic where supply chains have been critical.
BUILDING RESILIENCE
The intersection of the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit will force logistics businesses to review their supply chains, to not only cater for evolving consumer behaviour but to make them as resilient as possible.
It is hugely important to build supply chain strategies that are agile and resilient enough to withstand whatever comes their way, including adopting more sustainable practices to reduce CO2 emissions and costs.
We have long been backing the use of regional ports, closer to the origin or destination of cargo, as a less congested alternative to southern terminal counterparts. Fewer road or rail miles mean less fuel is consumed on the land leg of the journey. This not only reduces cost, but also reduces carbon in the supply chain - emissions from shipping can be up to 80% lower than those from road on a tonne per kilometre basis.
The shorter journey also improves driver productivity - a key factor given the increasing scarcity of long-distance truck drivers.
Potential delays and hold-ups post-Brexit help bring the need to use the port closest to the origin or destination to light further. Using ports close to the origin and destination, and alternative modes of shipping, such as unaccompanied RORO or containers, logistics operators are able to minimise the impact of border
8 PARC’s giant marine yard will provide clean, renewable energy
through offshore wind assets
Photo: Peel Ports control to enable goods to reach their final destination. Beyond the proximity-to-market benefits, an evolved port strategy gives logistics providers new opportunities to make other gains too.
Using regional gateways allows those with the need for new industrial developments (for example fulfilment centres, factories and processing plants) the opportunity to take advantage of fluctuating land values and labour availability/labour costs across the country, rather than be stuck in one high-cost region.
8 The wheels are in
motion with Peel Port’s new electric vehicle livery
Additionally, using ports closer to consumption, the logistics sector can help take trucks off the main long-haul motorway routes, improving energy efficiency and business responsibility in response to the continuing threat of climate change.
ADDRESSING SUSTAINABILITY
Although the full economic effect of the pandemic and Brexit is yet to be realised, there is a desire from government and businesses to 'build back greener' ensuring that recovery in every sense of the word is aligned to enhanced sustainability.
The UK is legally bound by the target to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A collective effort by businesses to reduce their carbon footprints will help us reach UK and international targets, which almost certainly involves looking at alternative transportation modes for goods or reducing the distance goods need to travel by road.
Technological development also has a key part to play to enable businesses to be smarter and make transitions to alternative low-carbon fuels.
Thanks to our agile and resilient business model, Peel Ports has adapted quickly and remained at the forefront of the UK's supply chain.
We've opened up trade opportunities with the introduction of
new Intra-European routes with Containerships, BG Freight and CdLN serving the European market and Irish sea hubs, as well as a new rail service connecting the Port of Liverpool to the East Midlands, that has helped to lower the carbon emissions from this point in the supply chain by reducing the road miles of cargo.
Across our ports, we've continued to drive forward our Enviro365 strategy to ensure we set high standards in environmental management across the group.
WHITE PAPER
The last 12 months have been a turning point for many supply chains and our whitepaper focuses on how ports have the potential to enable the supply chain of the future in various ways, including;
Acting as regional gateways - alternatives to the Dover Straits that offer proximity-to-market benefits, reduce delays and reduce carbon emissions.
Acting as regional enablers - supporting and increasing economic activity in coastal regions.
Facilitator of supply chain activity - fulfilling a wide-range of logistics activities e.g. processing, product finalisation and rebranding.
Peel Ports Group is one of the largest port operators, responsible for the successful and efficient operations of ports across the UK and part of this is ensuring we build on our environmental journey.
We introduced our Enviro365 strategy to bring a coordinated group approach and a renewed focus on good environmental management.
The plan covers key areas such as protecting the environment that we operate in e.g. risk assessing our activities and reducing our environmental impact, as well as building a strong and effective environmental culture among employees at every level or the organisation.
As a port operator, we have a role to play in helping to facilitate services to ships visiting us, and their needs. We have close dialogue with our customers about their aspirations for the future and any changes they are looking to bring in within their fleets.
We also play a role in making sure the areas within our jurisdiction are conserved and protected. We would take action against anyone seen to be polluting or discharging marine waste into the environment.
At Peel Ports, we have a busy environmental agenda and all the pieces are starting to fit together to move us in a more sustainable direction.
GREEN PROJECTS
We have been working on a number of projects across the group to reduce our carbon footprint and help drive greater sustainability, including the introduction of LED Lighting.
At the end of 2019, we installed new energy efficient LED lights at the Port of Liverpool LEDs are up to 80% more efficient than fluorescent and incandescent and 95% of the energy is converted into light and only 5% is wasted as heat.
The new lights have sensors and are helping deliver a better working environment, improving the lighting, consuming less energy, requiring less maintenance and only offering light when needed.
Similar schemes are operating across the group and a wider environmental strategy is in place to look at other areas across the business.
The wheels are in motion with our new electric vehicle livery. It is our intention to switch 50% of our entire fleet to electric by the end of 2021, helping reduce CO2 emissions and improve air quality across our port network.
We are currently looking at the development of port air quality strategies and part of this work has included looking at the emissions in our ports. This work is helping us understand what areas we can control, influence or that we need to have an appreciation of and is allowing us to set out some long term aims.
At Hunterston Port and Resource Campus (PARC), on the Clyde coast, we are strongly positioned to back the ambitious green targets of both Scottish and UK governments - using its giant marine yard to provide clean, renewable energy through offshore wind assets.
The Scottish Government aims to generate half of Scotland's overall energy consumption from renewables by 2030 - with offshore wind generation playing a key role in delivering against these targets.
Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to power every home in the UK with offshore wind energy within a decade and committed £160m to upgrading ports and factories for building turbines.
Hunterston PARC offers a massive 320-acre site with bluegreen economy at its heart and is readily available to support the offshore renewable energy industry.
With its unique assets including the deepest water in the UK, direct access to the national rail network and one of the UK's largest dry docks, it makes an ideal base for the manufacturing of floating wind turbines.
We have invested significant time working in partnership with leading industry operators, world class universities and innovators to deliver technological advances in supporting the future of power generation and providing clean, renewable energy is high on the agenda.
With the Government's recent pledge to help the country 'build back greener' - this is where we believe the focus will lie.
This will be a focus for not only us as a group, with the progression of our environmental strategy, but also for our customers as they adapt and create a sustainable supply chain.
We are already seeing signs that businesses are looking ahead and building resilient and greener supply chain strategies, which have ports at their very heart.
8 Liverpool2 is one
