Investigating implementation of green port initiative at johor port berhad

Abstract

Environmental sustainability in the port industry is a growing concern among port authorities, policy makers, port users, and local communities. Hence, port operations are continuously subject to challenges as a result of unpredictable environmental changes and ever evolving business dynamics. In order to address this issue, the sustainable development and green port concept have emerged as a requirement and the solution. In an attempt to minimize the environmental impacts for sustainable operations in the long run, Johor Port Authority (JPA), a responsible party that monitors the port operation in Johor has introduced Green Port Initiative (2014-2020) to recognize the importance of port sustainability as a key driver in the port development and its sustainability in the future. One of the ports which participated in this initiative was Johor Port Berhad (JPB) which is located in Pasir Gudang, Johor, a southern state of Peninsular Malaysia. The initiatives which started in 2014 is worth an investigation in terms of performance and involvement of the JPB staff. The study has adopted qualitative research method using the group focus interviews to collect the data and to extract the theme and issues. The findings revealed that there is direct positive association between degree of awareness and implementation effectiveness among the respondents. This indicates that there is insufficient communication in creating awareness among JPB staff resulting at lower level of commitment, hence there is an immediate need for relevant training programs in realizing green concept objectives. It is envisaged that these preliminary findings will enable JPA to design more appropriate mechanisms in the organization to not only effectively implement Green Port policy framework but also to ensure that the relevant performance matrices are developed to monitor, track and report its implementation success.