Search Results (36)

With the continuous expansion of global trade, achieving sustainable maritime transport optimization and operations has become a key strategic direction for transforming maritime transport companies. To summarize the current state of research and identify emerging trends in sustainable maritime transport optimization and operations, this study systematically examines representative studies from the past decade, focusing on three dimensions, technology, management, and policy, using data sourced from the Web of Science (WOS) database. Building on this analysis, potential avenues for future research are suggested. Research indicates that the technological field centers on the integrated application of alternative fuels, improvements in energy efficiency, and low-carbon technologies in the shipping and port sectors. At the management level, green investment decisions, speed optimization, and berth scheduling are emphasized as core strategies for enhancing corporate sustainable performance. From a policy perspective, attention is placed on the synergistic effects between market-based measures (MBMs) and governmental incentive policies. Existing studies primarily rely on multi-objective optimization models to achieve a balance between emission reductions and economic benefits. Technological innovation is considered a key pathway to decarbonization, while support from governments and organizations is recognized as crucial for ensuring sustainable development. Future research trends involve leveraging blockchain, big data, and artificial intelligence to optimize and streamline sustainable maritime transport operations, as well as establishing a collaborative governance framework guided by environmental objectives. This study contributes to refining the existing theoretical framework and offers several promising research directions for both academia and industry practitioners. Full article

Under the “Dual Carbon” strategy, collaborative governance of port atmospheric pollutants and carbon emissions is critical for low-carbon transformation. Focusing on Ningbo-Zhoushan Port (48% regional ship emissions), this study examines government, port enterprises, and public interactions. A tripartite evolutionary game model with numerical simulation reveals dynamic patterns and key factors. The results show the following: (1) A substitution effect exists between government incentive costs and penalty intensity—increased environmental governance budgets reduce the probability of government incentives, whereas higher public reporting rewards accelerate corporate emission reduction convergence. (2) Public supervision exhibits cyclical fluctuations due to conflicts between individual rationality and collective interests, with excessive reporting rewards potentially triggering free-rider behavior. (3) The system exhibits two stable equilibria: a low-efficiency equilibrium (0,0,0) and a high-efficiency equilibrium (1,1,1). The latter requires policy cost compensation, corporate emission reduction gains exceeding investments, and a supervision benefit–cost ratio greater than 1. Accordingly, the study proposes a three-dimensional “Incentive–Constraint–Collaboration” governance strategy, recommending floating penalty mechanisms, green financial instrument innovation, and community supervision network optimization to balance environmental benefits with fiscal sustainability. This research provides a dynamic decision-making framework for multi-agent collaborative emission reduction in ports, offering both methodological innovation and practical guidance value. Full article

Against the backdrop of rapidly expanding international trade and escalating environmental challenges, the development of green ports has emerged as a pivotal element of sustainable development. This study addresses the critical issues of insufficient corporate motivation for transformation and inadequate regulatory mechanisms by establishing a tripartite evolutionary game model involving government, customs, and port enterprises. Key findings demonstrate that customs supervision significantly reduces enterprises’ transition costs and enhances environmental compliance willingness, though its effectiveness depends on complementary government policies including environmental taxation and fiscal incentives. When regulatory intensity is weak, enterprises persist with conventional practices; conversely, strengthened supervision accelerates strategic convergence toward sustainable governance. This research provides a theoretical foundation for policymakers to formulate green port initiatives while offering practical guidance for enterprises to align with sustainability objectives, thereby contributing to environmentally responsible port development. Full article

Port shipping collaboration is vital to greener, more resilient trade, yet decisions remain siloed and uncertain. This study develops a Bayesian network model grounded in empirical data from major Chinese ports, aiming to systematically analyze and enhance port shipping collaborative capacity. The methodology integrates expert knowledge and structural learning algorithms to construct a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), representing complex multi-stakeholder interactions among port enterprises, shipping companies, customers, and governmental bodies. Through forward and backward probabilistic inference, the study quantifies how coordinated improvements yield substantial synergistic benefits. Five leverage points stand out: customer engagement in green supply chains, perceived service quality, port digital information integration, multilateral trading maturity, and strict policy enforcement. A newly revealed feedback loop between digital integration and enforcement extends Emerson et al.’s collaborative governance framework, highlighting “digital-era connectivity” as a critical governance dimension and offering managers a focused, evidence-based action agenda. Full article

The maritime industry is crucial in mitigating global warming and advancing sustainable maritime development worldwide. As essential nodes in maritime supply chains and key energy hubs, ports must undergo decarbonization to support global sustainability efforts. Research on port decarbonization (PD) has gained increasing attention in recent years, with several reviews revisiting this topic. However, most existing studies have focused on specific aspects such as measures or policies rather than a holistic perspective. This study adopts a comprehensive approach by examining three key perspectives: PD measures, PD facilitation activities, and PD macro-environmental factors. By systematically analyzing 218 articles retrieved from the Scopus database through bibliometric and content analysis, this study identifies trends over time, geographic distribution, key journals, leading authors, prominent themes, research clusters, researched countries, and methodologies. Key findings highlight the following priorities: (i) broadening the focus to include various port types; (ii) more studies on ports in lower-middle-income economies; (iii) promoting cross regional and international research collaboration; (iv) studying alternative fuels and diversified PD measures through theoretical lenses, innovative, practical, and multifaceted perspectives, and within the context of green corridors and global and regional PD efforts; (v) identifying effective governance models, human resources strategies, infrastructure development, and collaboration mechanisms; and (vi) addressing the direct and indirect impacts of political, legal, and macro-environmental factors on PD. Full article

Shore power represents one of the principal solutions for the green transformation within the port industry. It significantly aids in the reduction in carbon emissions from vessels while they are berthed in port, yet often necessitates an effective promotional strategy to foster its installation and utilization. Stakeholders including port authorities, ship operators, and local governments all play a crucial role in achieving this objective. This paper employs a tripartite evolutionary game model in conjunction with a system dynamics model to investigate the evolutionary responses of stakeholders when policy tools are applied, and consequently, to elucidate the dynamics of strategy effectiveness. In this context, six business scenarios are developed to ascertain the potential impacts of implementing subsidies and carbon taxes. The findings demonstrate that any singular strategy, whether a subsidy or a carbon tax, is inadequate for the successful advancement of shore power; on the contrary, a government-led, integrated, and dynamic reward–punishment strategy aids in stabilizing the inherent fluctuations within this game process. Moreover, the initial willingness of ship operators exerts a considerably greater influence than that of the other two stakeholders. Full article

This paper delves into sustainability and energy policies influencing the governance and dynamics of global maritime trade. Resilience and sustainability are also discussed, along with the obstacles encountered and strategies to overcome them. The analysis underscores the importance of developing long-term strategies and participatory processes, focusing on government involvement in promoting structural changes towards a more sustainable seaborne transport system. Part of our research is also dedicated to outlining the different factors influencing this industry among different continents, highlighting the need for increasingly unified governance frameworks internationally. By incorporating resilience theory and new technologies, with a high potential in terms of GHG emission reduction, governments and firms can better engage stakeholders, ensure business resilience, and address climate change risks. This study concludes that ports have significant power in driving structural change, and modernization across various areas—such as digitalization, energy policies, safety, green fuels, environmental sustainability, and effective coordination—is essential for their continued development. Full article

As a key node in the transportation network, ports connect the inland hinterland with the outside world, providing strong guarantees for the sustainable development of domestic trade and economy. However, the increasing port activities, while promoting regional economic growth, have also brought increasingly serious environmental problems to the local area. Promoting port emission reduction is a key way and important lever for China’s transportation industry to promote ecological civilization construction. By using CiteSpace to systematically review the literature on port emission reductions in recent years in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science databases, it was found that significant achievements have been made in port emission reduction technology, policy system construction, and emission reduction effect evaluation. However, there are still problems such as insufficient research on regional differences and insufficient in-depth analysis of emission reduction costs and benefits. Analyzing the hotspots and trends of port emission reduction research at home and abroad can provide reference for the theoretical research and practical path of coordinated emission reduction governance in Chinese ports. Future research on port emission reduction should focus on regional differences, cost–benefit analysis, and in-depth exploration of the synergistic effects of port emission reduction and regional economic development, in order to provide more comprehensive theoretical support and practical guidance for the green sustainable development of ports. Full article

The relationship between ports and energy markets is undergoing a transition in their functions as suppliers, consumers, and energy processors. Environmental factors increasingly force the maritime sector to reduce its carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency. Governing the maritime sector’s environmental performance requires leveling decarbonization through integration with energy supply chains and rethinking green strategies and environmental sustainability. This paper highlights that a port’s energy management system can be an example of supply–demand equalizing sustainable alternative energy sources. Such systems engage more profoundly within the energy value chain by assessing green and environmental indicators in port operations, strategies, and investments. This manuscript investigates the challenges in ports’ operations, strategies, and investments, considering their energy transition and decarbonization. Therefore, this research conducted a qualitative study on ports’ energy efficiency and greening using an in-depth interview method in three seaports in the Adriatic, Baltic, and Black Sea basins. The paper proposes a framework for analyzing green variables in the ports’ operations, strategies, and investments to improve their environmental performance. The framework examines a set of green variables, researching their cause-and-effect relationship, enabling testing and evaluation of the determined relationships, and identifying asynchrony in the balanced development of green investments and energy efficiency. Full article

In recent years, offshore wind power has become increasingly relevant as a key alternative for contributing to the global economy’s decarbonization. Also, the accelerated technological development of the offshore wind turbine influences the increase in size and weight of its main components. This requires an appropriate port infrastructure to support the installation, operation, and maintenance and future decommissioning of offshore wind farms, and especially to serve as an area for manufacturing these components, addressing logistical challenges associated with land transport. This research aims to identify the factors that characterize a suitable port to support the offshore wind industry, also bringing the new green port industry concept. A systematic literature review was conducted via analyses of 126 documents, and a survey procedure was applied to validate the proposed model. As a result, a characterization model was proposed that includes 71 factors classified into 6 dimensions: physical characteristics, port layout, connectivity, port operation, port–farm performance optimization, and governance for sustainability, which is the main novelty of this study. The results contribute to the advancement of the offshore wind energy sector and can provide significant benefits for regional development and local communities with offshore wind potential. Full article

Ports are the main arteries of global trade, handling goods circulation and serving as hubs for information, capital, and technology. Integrating digital technology has become the key for green port development to achieve resource efficiency and ecological balance. The current literature overlooks how digital technology can facilitate greener port operations. This study integrates sustainable supply chain management and system dynamics theories based on an in-depth analysis of existing research results and expert interviews. The analysis focuses on three key dimensions: integrating digital technologies with infrastructure, optimizing digital management and operations, and improving environmental and safety management in a digitally driven setting. Using the fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (Fuzzy Dematel) methodology, we collaborated with domain experts in port logistics to identify and confirm 12 pivotal factors that support the green digital transformation of ports. The research shows that the most critical success factors for using digital technology to drive ports’ green transformation are green supply chain information platforms, intelligent vessel scheduling, traffic optimization, and digital carbon emission monitoring. This study significantly contributes to the literature on green port transformation, offering indispensable practical insights for port operators, government entities, and shipping firms in identifying and deploying these key success factors. The findings will help maritime supply chain stakeholders develop actionable digital strategies, improving port efficiency and ecological resilience. Full article

Seaports are pivotal nodes in global trade, under increasing pressure to expedite green transitions while navigating the complexities of modern economic and environmental challenges. This research investigates the intricate relationship between the resilience of port organizational ecosystems and the successful implementation of green transitions. Employing a combination of focus group interviews and participatory observation, the study explores the primary obstacles, particularly the insufficiency of managerial capacity, which hampers the integration of technological innovations. Challenges identified include outdated infrastructure, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and the imperative for sustained investment in new technologies, along with the need to promote a culture of sustainability. Experts highlight the crucial role of managerial competencies and continuous learning in overcoming these barriers. Furthermore, the research underscores the importance of fostering strong partnerships among stakeholders, including government bodies, industry associations, and environmental organizations. The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, port managers, and other stakeholders seeking to navigate the challenges for ensuring a sustainable future for the maritime sport organizational ecosystems and maritime industry. Full article

This paper presents innovations in green electronic and computing technologies. The importance and the status of the main subjects in green electronic and computing technologies are presented in this paper. In the last semicentennial, the planet suffered from rapid changes in climate. The planet is suffering from increasingly wild storms, hurricanes, typhoons, hard droughts, increases in seawater height, floods, seawater acidification, decreases in groundwater reserves, and increases in global temperatures. These climate changes may be irreversible if companies, organizations, governments, and individuals do not act daily and rapidly to save the planet. Unfortunately, the continuous growth in the number of computing devices, cellular devices, smartphones, and other smart devices over the last fifty years has resulted in a rapid increase in climate change. It is severely crucial to design energy-efficient “green” technologies and devices. Toxic waste from computing and cellular devices is rapidly filling up landfills and increasing air and water pollution. This electronic waste contains hazardous and toxic materials that pollute the environment and affect our health. Green computing and electronic engineering are employed to address this climate disaster. The development of green materials, green energy, waste, and recycling are the major objectives in innovation and research in green computing and electronics technologies. Energy-harvesting technologies can be used to produce and store green energy. Wearable active sensors and metamaterial antennas with circular split ring resonators (CSSRs) containing energy-harvesting units are presented in this paper. The measured bandwidth of the matched sensor is around 65% for VSWR, which is better than 3:1. The sensor gain is 14.1 dB at 2.62 GHz. A wideband 0.4 GHz to 6.4 GHz slot antenna with an RF energy-harvesting unit is presented in this paper. The Skyworks Schottky diode, SMS-7630, was used as the rectifier diode in the harvesting unit. If we transmit 20 dBm of RF power from a transmitting antenna that is located 0.2 m from the harvesting slot antenna at 2.4 GHz, the output voltage at the output port of the harvesting unit will be around 1 V. The power conversion efficiency of the metamaterial antenna dipole with metallic strips is around 75%. Wearable sensors with energy-harvesting units provide efficient, low-cost healthcare services that contribute to a green environment and minimize energy consumption. The measurement process and setups of wearable sensors are presented in this paper. Full article

Increasing port pollution has forced governments to enact policies related to green ports to maintain the sustainability of maritime transportation. In this article, we established a policy evaluation system based on the PMC (policy modeling consistency) index model to evaluate 17 green port-related policies currently enacted on coastal China, providing a new perspective on existing maritime policy evaluations. The results show that the average overall consistency of the policies is 7.16 with “good” performance, and no policy is “low” consistency. While this suggests that the existing policy design is sound, some deficiencies exist, such as insufficient cooperation between governments and insufficient emphasis on incentives. We provide recommendations for improvement based on these deficiencies and analyzed and optimized every policy in detail. Meanwhile, we found that policy texts from southern ports perform better, contrary to the previous view. The discovery could be a good entry point for future research. We also offer some suggestions for the development of green ships in China. The research makes these contributions and may provide some insights for policymakers. Full article

The sustainable development of the maritime supply chain is an undeniable trend. Low-carbon port operations are a vital component of creating an eco-friendly maritime supply chain, requiring substantial investments in technologies that reduce carbon emissions. However, the key factors influencing investment decisions by ports and shipping companies in these green technologies, particularly government subsidies, remain poorly understood. Hence, this paper proposes a game-based framework to explore the impact of government subsidies. Through numerical analysis, this study first demonstrates that the pricing decisions, investment level, and profits of ports and shipping companies are sensitive to government subsidies and low-carbon preferences of the market; however, the influence of government subsidies and low-carbon preferences varies with different adopted investment strategies. Furthermore, investment decisions are mainly influenced by investment costs, low-carbon preferences, government subsidies, and cost-sharing ratios. Ports are more sensitive to government subsidies and low-carbon preferences while shipping companies are more sensitive to government subsidies and cost-sharing ratios. In addition, government subsidies and low-carbon preferences are substitutes for each other and can balance cost-sharing ratios between ports and shipping companies. Finally, recommendations are provided to the government, ports, and shipping companies for promoting low-carbon port operations based on the findings of this study. Full article