During the ceremony organised by the BlueMissionMed project, in collaboration with MedCruise and with the support of the European Commission, four Exemplary Ports for Innovative Sustainable Solutions were awarded for their sustainable and environmental efforts.
Athens, April 17th, 2024 – MedCruise attended the 9th ‘Our Ocean Conference’ held yesterday, April 16th, 2024, in Athens, which celebrated excellence in maritime sustainability through the ‘Blue Ports and Destinations’ Awards ceremony, which honoured four exemplary ports.
Organised by BlueMissionMed in collaboration with MedCruise and with the support of the European Commission, the main objective of the Awards was to recognize, promote and support the best practices within the industry of ports and shipping, highlighting the significant contributions of ports towards the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’.
The role of MedCruise also encompassed collaboration with other associations like Cruise Europe and CLIA in dissemination efforts, aiming to broaden participation of ports and destinations in the Awards and extend their reach beyond the Mediterranean region.
Identifying outstanding achievements across different categories, among many participants from different regions in the Mediterranean and northern Europe, the ceremony announced the 4 winners and 3 were MedCruise ports members: Port of Ravenna (Italy), for its visionary strategies driving the city’s green transition in the category of Social, Corporate Sustainability, Community & Port Connectivity category; Port of Heraklion (Greece) and Galataport Istanbul (Turkey) jointly honoured for their unwavering dedication and innovative initiatives fostering sustainable practices within the maritime sector in the Eco-Conscious Entrepreneur & Personality category.
In the Building, Design, Construction, or Technical Sustainability Solutions category, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges (Belgium) was acknowledged for its constant commitment to sustainability across all operational elements.
Figen Ayan, President of MedCruise, served as the Chair of the ‘Blue Ports & Destinations’ Awards, setting another example of MedCruise’s long commitment to sustainability and the advancement of a thriving blue cruise industry. Ayan added “The Blue Ports and Destination Award has been an excellent platform and milestone to highlight the great sustainable and environmental efforts of the ports but also the industry to meet the 2030 targets at the EU level. We need to continue this path with our concrete actions and our strong sense of collaboration”.
The Conference featured the Mission Ocean side event organised by the European Commission, the Environmental Defence Fund and BlueMissionMed project entitled ‘Concrete solutions for our greatest challenges: Mission Restore our Oceans and Waters by 2030’.
The innovative initiatives and actions under the EU Mission were highlighted: ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’ that address some of the greatest challenges faced by marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity.
It also showed the growing partnerships between different foundations and the philanthropic community. This event emphasized the importance of developing further the coordination between public and private funding to facilitate the restoration of islands worldwide.
For more information and updates on the Blue Ports and Destinations Awards, please visit the following links 1) LINK 2) LINK 2
About Mission Ocean
Website: https://missionoceanwaters.eu/#/
With a 2030 target, the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters” aims to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement and blue investments. The Mission’s new approach will address the ocean and waters as one and play a key role in achieving climate neutrality and restoring nature.
Cross-cutting enabling actions will support this objective, in particular broad public mobilisation and engagement and a digital ocean and water knowledge system, known as Digital Twin Ocean.
The Mission supports regional engagement and cooperation through area-based “lighthouses” in major sea/river basins: Atlantic-Arctic, Mediterranean Sea, Baltic-North Sea, and Danube-Black Sea. Mission lighthouses are sites to pilot, demonstrate, develop and deploy the Mission activities across EU seas and river basins.
About BlueMissionMed
Website: https://bluemissionmed.eu/
BlueMissionMed will Inspire, Inform, Assess, Mobilise, Connect and Empower all the actors that can Take a Role in preventing and eliminating pollution in the Mediterranean sea and waters.
The BlueMissionMed Coordination and Support Action (CSA) will design, structure and support a well-functioning basin scale innovation ecosystem, ensuring fast progress towards the achievement of Mission “Restore Our Oceans and Waters by 2030” objectives and important impact on the society.
The project builds on, connects and structures existing initiatives and activities to disseminate and upscale solutions and mobilise relevant actors with the specific aim of addressing the Objective 2 of the Mission, namely “prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters”.
BlueMissionMed will engage stakeholders from Policy, Business, Research&Innovation and Civil Society, as well as the so-called Ecosystem Enablers to synergize the actions of the Mission Lighthouse in the Mediterranean basin.
About MedCruise
The Association of Mediterranean Cruise Ports.
The mission of MedCruise is to promote the cruise industry in the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas. The Association assists its members in benefiting from the growth of the cruise industry by providing networking, promotional, as well as professional development opportunities.
Established in Rome on the 11th of June 1996, by a collaborative agreement between 16 ports in seven different countries, the MedCruise membership spreads today in 22 countries and is located in three different continents, Africa, Asia and Europe. MedCruise represents more than 150 ports and 54 associate members.
