Towards climate neutral and circular dredging - the role of the clients in the transition of the dredging industry
Type:
Presented during:
CEDA Dredging Days 2024
Authors:
Harry Zondag, Edwin Hupkes, Edwin Stofbergen, and Chiel Lauwerijssen
Abstract
Sustainability is not a kind of luxury or a left wing hobby, it is a condition for continuity to our dredging industry. Our legislation, our permits, our management, our employees and our project stakeholders ask for it. In some companies, also the shareholders and investors ask for it, because they understand that sustainability creates a more futureproof business. However, different questions arise then. What is sustainable, what focus is needed, where to start, is there a business case for investments, will clients be willing to pay for another approach, how does it influence my market position? And one of the questions we for ourselves as clients in dredging industry ask: what is my role and my influence? In an effort to address this issue, we collaborated with contractors, other clients, scientists and suppliers to develop a unified approach to achieving circular and climate neutral coastline and fairway maintenance. We focus on two issues of sustainability: circularity and climate neutral execution of the works. In this paper we focus on the emissions of the equipment. We, that means, Rijkswaterstaat and the Port of Rotterdam, are together responsible for the largest seagoing dredging demand in the Netherlands. But in the international market, how can we use our role and influence in this transition? There are regulations and goals of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the European Union (EU) for international shipping, but dredging is mostly an exception in many regulations. Since the dredging industry is a niche market and mainly driven by public clients, we try to use our position as a client to help the industry to innovate on this topic.
Keywords: Dredging, sustainability, contracts, role of clients, market transformation, award criterium, Life Cycle Analysis