A quantitative research on evaluation of performance criteria in green ports

Maritime transportation, which has a large share in world trade, increases the importance of the ports that are the gateway to the countries' outwards. Increasing trade means increased port operations, which means increased ship traffic, cargo operations and transport traffic to the hinterland areas at the ports. Increased port activities bring along adverse environmental effects. The maritime industry is a sector that can cause significant environmental disasters that have entered the literature. The environmental negativity caused can be not only country-based but also have global effects. The green port volunteering project, an environmentally friendly initiative against adverse environmental impacts and is becoming widespread today, is encouraged both in Turkey and in other countries. Although these initiatives are currently voluntary, it is anticipated that there may be a need for all ports in the future. Thus, ports established and developed with significant investments should keep themselves ready for global competition by putting awareness of their adverse environmental impact at the forefront of their management and by producing strategies and solutions in this direction. In this research, green performance criteria for ports in Turkey tried to be determined. In this context, a survey was conducted on the importance weights of these criteria determined to the port authorities. These criteria in the survey were compared with the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method and it was determined what their environmental priorities were for Turkish ports. It has been concluded that the top three most important criteria for Turkish ports are, respectively, hazardous waste handling (16,65%), water pollution (16,19%) and air pollution (13,70%). Based on the results obtained from this study, the ports in Turkey can make plans and initiatives that will reduce their adverse environmental impact according to the importance of the environmental criteria determined.