Nature Positive Role of the Ports Sector

Ports can take action to accelerate the nature- positive transition if they better understand their interactions – both impacts and dependencies – with nature. By adopting double materiality decision-making to both their own operations and related economic activities in the entire port value chain, they could scale their contributions. The principle of “double materiality”, a concept at the heart of the EU’s CSRD, defines a company’s impact on the environment and its dependencies on it as highly interdependent (see Figure 6). In other words, the economic activities of businesses have impacts on both the environment and society (known as impact materiality), while concurrently, businesses also encounter risks (and opportunities) arising from their dependencies on the environment and society (known as financial materiality). The port sector has high dependencies on nature, including environmental assets and ecosystem services.63,642.1 Double materiality Double materiality FIGURE 6 Double materiality Traditional materiality Business impacts on nature/ impact materialityDependencies/ financial materiality Examples of financial materiality Pressure on water availability and decline in quality affect company profitability Soil erosion and degradation lead to decreases in agricultural yields for agricultural food companies Dirty beaches and coastal areas cause drop in tourism traffic and revenues – – –Examples of impact materiality Company activities affect water supply and quality Unsustainable agricultural practices lead to decrease in soil quality Irresponsible travel and tourism cause pollution and over-exploitation of natural resources – – –Business dependencies on nature/financial materiality Source: World Economic Forum. Definition of double materiality sourced from: Deloitte. (2023). Double Materiality: 5 challenging key aspects to consider. As large physical infrastructure, the construction and operation of ports depend primarily on available and high-functioning land and sea assets. Port terminals must be built on suitable coastlines, and distribution sites for stacking containers or storing goods require surrounding easily accessible land. Ship navigation and berthing require safe, open, functioning water systems. Port waters must be maintained at a certain depth for navigational safety, and high water quality is important for port infrastructure, ships and staff. Nature Positive: Role of the Port Sector 18