Environmental Certification

ISO14001

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is an important tool through which the Port controls its activities, products and services that have the potential to cause environmental impacts at the Ports of Townsville and Lucinda and ensure our compliance with legislative requirements. The Port strives to continually improve both our environmental management and the effectiveness of our controls via the EMS. The EMS helps structure the integration of environmental management into both the Port's daily operations and long-term strategic planning, as well as the linkage to other management systems (e.g. the Quality, Safety and Information Technology Management Systems).

The EMS is certified to ISO 14001:2015, an internationally recognised externally audited Environmental Management System standard. Further information about ISO 14001:2015 can be found on the ISO website (https://www.iso.org/iso-14001-environmental-management.html).

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Key benefits of having an EMS are:

Implementation of a robust system to consistently quantify, monitor and control impacts.
Development of structured management of environmental risks.
Improvement of environmental performance.
Guarantee of legislative compliance and maintenance of all records.
Incorporation of sustainability initiatives e.g. energy, waste and water minimisation.

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The Environmental Policy outlines what the Port intends to achieve via the EMS.

Continuous improvement of the EMS is achieved by following the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle whereby the Port continually reviews and revises the system.

EcoPorts

In April 2021, the Port achieved the first step towards EcoPorts certification after becoming the fourth Australian port to be part of the sustainable port network EcoPorts. EcoPorts is an independent foundation that provides ports with the tools to develop global best practice environmental management systems.

For more information, see https://www.ecoslc.eu/