Sustainability Week at Shoreham Port hailed a success
Hundreds of people enjoyed a wide range of environmentally focused events at Sustainability Week at Shoreham Port last week (w/c 6.7.21). In collaboration with lead partners the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Sussex Dolphin Project the Port hosted three days packed full of opportunities to get involved and learn more about the brilliant work going on within organisations across the Port, region, and sector to be more sustainable.
With the sun shining brightly on Wednesday morning, Sustainability Week kicked off with opening speeches from Chief Executive Tom Willis, GWEC Chief Executive Ben Backwell, Adur District and Worthing Borough Council’s Interim Chief Executive Catherine Howe, and Port Sustainability Manager Cheyenne Plant.
Over 20 events were held throughout Sustainability Week, with over 250 people visiting the Port in just three days. Highlights of the week included a walking tour of the Port to learn about the local flora and fauna, educational workshops at Sussex Dolphin Project, boat trips to the nearby windfarm hosted by Rampion, and an Offshore Wind Day held at GWEC’s TV studio at Lady Bee Enterprise Centre.
Meanwhile at Shoreham Port’s Nautilus house, attendees enjoyed engaging presentations from a range of sustainability pioneers, including Chloe Clarke, Sustainability Officer for Adur and Worthing Council, Scientists Corina Ciocan and Mary Geary from the University of Brighton, and Rhona Macdonald, the Sustainability Advisor for The British Ports Association.
Planning for the future is also about people, which is why as part of Sustainability Week the Port collaborated with education partners at Shoreham Academy on a Sustainability Challenge. Year 10 students from the Academy delivered short presentations on their new sustainability ideas for the Port, with a panel of judges choosing a winner to be invited to a month’s paid work experience next summer to a pupil looking to develop a career in sustainability. Delmar the Recycling Dolphin was a huge hit during the week. Created by our talented Engineering team, Delmar is an eye-catching dolphin sculpture made from repurposed metal in which you can drop recyclable plastics for safe disposal, helping us keep our seas clean. Delmar represents our commitment to protecting our local area for generations to come and will be relocated to a permanent home by Southwick Beach very soon.
Tom Willis, Chief Executive commented “Our Port has played a part in the community for over 260 years and our ambition is for colleagues of the future to look back and think the team of 2021 did the right things. For the future our plans remain ambitious, but activity increasing cannot be a reason for increasing emissions, and as operations expand our environmental impact needs to reduce. We aim to be as transparent as possible on where we are making progress and where more attention is needed.”
Tom continued “Sustainability is a team game, so Sustainability Week was all about collaboration with partners, sharing ideas to reach common goals and it was fantastic to see so many of our key partners join us last week.”
Cheyenne Plant, Sustainability Manager commented “I’m blown away by the positive feedback received for Sustainability Week; it was an excellent opportunity to hold an in-person event for our stakeholders and the community to learn so much about local sustainability initiatives and make connections for future collaboration. I hope we can make next year even better. Thank you to everyone that came and to everyone that hosted an event, I learnt so much valuable knowledge from our fantastic speakers.”