Our World
Caring for the environment
Port operations are busy by their nature, they are used by a diverse range of customers and businesses to transport, store and process goods every day. We are working to minimise the environmental impact of our own operations whilst ensuring we work to enable others to minimise theirs. We have made a serious commitment to become a net zero port operator by 2040, and are well on our way across three key areas:
- Reducing the impact of our operations; we are transforming the way we operate cranes and machinery, use vehicles, and much more
- Enabling the necessary infrastructure to be in place for customers and partners to reduce their impact too; by working with shipping lines, hauliers, freight forwarders and many others
- Ensuring the procurement and investments projects we undertake support this sustainable agenda; by working with suppliers and purchasing ethically
Net Zero, Our Vision
As a leading port operator, and in most cases the responsible harbour authority for the locations where we operate, we have made a significant and industry-leading commitment to become carbon neutral by 2040.
This means that we aim to ensure all our operations will no longer produce carbon emissions, reducing pollution overall and ultimately providing a better environment for local communities, as well as being a positive force against global warming.
But we haven’t started today, many of the investments we have made over the last decade have already taken this into account, we have been moving to electric vehicles, cranes and plant equipment and working with suppliers to develop sustainable technologies to find innovative solutions so we can reach this goal as fast as we can.
Reducing the impact of our operations
We have done much to lessen the impact of our own operations, from a £400m investment into the Liverpool L2 terminal, with its electric and highly efficient cranes capable of generating and exporting energy back onto the grid, to transitioning to LED lighting and changing our entire fleet of vehicles to electric by 2023. Other key initiatives include:
- Most straddle carriers, cranes and plant equipment now run on HVO fuel or electricity instead of diesel with a carbon emission reduction of up to 90%
- Water is collected from warehouse roofs to fill up dock levels
- We are investing in rail connectivity to reduce road miles
- We are actively promoting the use of closer to end destination ports to tackle road congestion
Working with us – our sustainable supply chain
We work with hundreds of suppliers locally, regionally and nationally and this plays a vital role in delivering an efficient service to our customers and in reaffirming our commitment to Enabling the Future.
As a Group we are well aware we need to minimise the impact our operations have on the surrounding areas and we are committed to supporting the local economies where we work, and being a good neighbour to the communities around us.
We always endeavour to use suppliers and labour local to our Ports and last year we spent circa £25m with businesses located within 25 miles of the Port of Liverpool.
Award winning sustainability
In 2021 we were presented with the Green Industry Award by GREENFLEET after we switched 50% of our fleet to electric with a plan to convert the remainder by 2023.
Earlier this year, industry body Maritime UK presented Peel Ports Group with the prestigious Maritime 2050 award for seizing opportunities presented within the UK Government’s strategy for the sector - including our commitment to become a net zero port operator by 2040.
This demonstrates and acknowledges the steps we are taking to deliver on the seven key strategic themes of the initiative, which are: Environment, Infrastructure, Technology, Innovation, People, Regional growth and Trade.
We were also proud to receive the ‘Sustainability Award’ at the 2022 Multimodal Awards.
Jobs for the Future
Skills, learning & development
As the maritime industry continues to thrive, ports and the wider sector create growth through investment, bringing employment to the community and as most jobs are physically located on or near the port estate, these provide long-term, stable roles for local people. The extensive variety of jobs provides many opportunities for apprenticeships, on-the-job academic learning, and a varied career for life.
Everyone Welcome
Equality, diversity & inclusion
There’s no denying there is a big challenge in our industry around equality, diversity and inclusion. We’re committed to tackling this head-on, to ensure we’re moving towards a future where everyone from our communities is represented. We have a dedicated team developing our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy which centres around 4 key areas – gender, ethnicity, ability and identity.
Social & Good Causes
Supporting local projects
The charities we support are nominated by employees at each of our port locations and we encourage every team to be as engaged as possible in making a difference in their community. We have donated laptops, raised festive funds, organised litter picks and support a number of causes which benefit local communities and projects.
A Level Playing Field Whitepaper
The role of ports in achieving better outcomes for the UK’s levelling up agenda