Corporate social responsibility
The Port of Tromsø shall facilitate maritime business development and push for the green maritime shift in the north. By doing this, we will live up to our ambition vision: Creating the Arctic future.
Societal benefit
The Port of Tromsø is an important tool for stimulating value creation in the municipality and wider region. The port’s investments are expected to contribute to economic spin-off benefits in the private sector in the form of increased turnover and employment.
To assess the port’s benefit to society, BDO has surveyed the port’s economic spin-off benefits. The analysis shows that the significance of the port operations extends far beyond the operations and finances of the port company.
In 2019, the port operations contributed a combined:
- Turnover of NOK 3.6 billion
- Value creation of almost NOK 1.5 billion
- Employment of more than 1,300 people
Click here to read the full economic impact analysis (In Norwegian only)
The sea route is the environmental route
Our most important environmental and social contribution is to facilitate safe, sustainable and competitive maritime transport.
Facilitating efficient and environmentally friendly logistics and transport solutions is central to succeeding in strengthening the framework conditions for maritime transport. Reduced emissions from the transport sector are crucial if Norway shall achieve its climate goals. In this, measures related to maritime logistics are necessary to achieve the goal of sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions. This has been high on the agenda for the Port of Tromsø for this for several years and significant investments have been carried out, implemented and planned.
It was important to have Posten Brings new terminal established in Breivika. Collocation of the previously two terminals has contributed to less internal transport on Tromsøya and it is estimated that annual CO2 emissions are reduced by over 90 tonnes as a result of this. The Port of Tromsø has built a quay adjacent to the logistics terminal and this contributes to a further reduction in internal transport. Among others, the regular sea freight route between Tromsø, Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund calls here.
Efficient cargo handling in ports is important to strengthen the sea transport’s competitiveness. In Breivika the Port of Tromsø is now building a new quay with an associated ro-ro ramp combined with a container area. Based on the Norwegian Coastal Administration’s calculator, we have calculated that moving 9 000 trailers from road to sea in the Oslo-Tromsø freight corridor will have an environmental saving of 22,000 tonnes of CO2. The total capacity of this container area is 4 times this size.
In addition to the fact that transferring goods from road to sea reduces environmentally harmful emissions, it is important to keep the roads safe and reduce road wear and maintenance costs.
The transfer of cargo from road to sea will reduce environmentally harmful emissions, improve road safety and reduce road wear and tear and maintenance costs.
The sea route is always open and green transport is blue!
The port as a green energy hub
In addition to being a logistics hub, we will contribute to developing Tromsø into an energy hub. Along with Troms Kraft, we have established the company Fjuel to electrify the port. Some facilities are already in place and others are in the engineering phase. The goal is that in the course of 2024 we will also be able to offer electricity to cruise ships docked in downtown Tromsø.
Through Fjuel, we have secured power capacity for the area around the port terminal in the city centre. The conditions are thus well suited to establishing Prostneset as an energy hub.
The ports of the future are leaders when it comes to energy. Together with Fjuel, we are considering the possibility of offering other forms of green energy.
Energy consumption at our properties
When we develop our properties, we have major focus on energy consumption. The port terminal in downtown Tromsø is a public transport hub for travellers to and from the region. The terminal building and associated square and quay structure are all heated via a heating network utilising a seawater-based heat pump.
In collaboration with the Arctic Centre for Sustainable Energy (ARC) at UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, the Port of Tromsø is looking at opportunities port for solar energy to be used at the to supply electricity to buildings, vehicles and ships.
Waste
The Port of Tromsø has had approved waste management plans since 2005. Large volumes of solid and liquid waste are delivered to our quays annually.
In collaboration with the Centre for the Ocean and the Arctic and other actors, the Port of Tromsø is looking at the possibility of circular economy-based treatment of biowaste and marine plastic waste.
A clean sea is important and in 2011 the Port of Tromsø completed Norway’s largest sea-based environmental project, Rent Tromsøysund (Clean Tromsø Strait). Contaminated sediments from the seabed were dredged up and are stored in sealed cells that form the foundation for the port terminal and the quay structure in downtown Tromsø.
Archaeological excavations at Grøtsund
Archaeological excavations were carried out during the development of the port area at Grøtsund. Exciting discoveries were made that testify to a rich life at Tønsnes as far back as 11,000 years BC.