Abstract
One of the main challenges facing ports is reducing social and environmental impacts and integrating sustainability into their core business practices. Ports must make explicit moves toward publishing their policies and contributions to the low carbon economy in their reports. In 2015, the United Nations adopted a global action plan for sustainable development known as Agenda 2030. It contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and calls for global cooperation between governments, businesses, and civilian organizations to achieve these shared sustainable goals. This article seeks to identify sustainability practices for SDGs using content analysis on reports published by Brazilian Public Port Authorities between 2017 and 2020. Our study sampled ten port authorities that manage seventeen ports, which handled 76% of all national cargo shipments in 2021. This study is exploratory and descriptive research that involves qualitative analysis aided by Iramuteq analysis software. We concluded that the port authority reports mostly cited SDG 8 (Providing Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 11 (Creating Sustainable Cities and Communities), and SDG 14 (Protecting Aquatic/Marine Life) for the analyzed period. In practice, SDGs became a part of the port authority discussion agenda as of 2018. Only four of the ten port authorities, we evaluated reported on the SDG topic in 2020. As per the reports, SDG actions at most Brazilian ports are still incipient.
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Data availability
We highlight that all reports and spreadsheets generated in the study are available at the link https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21445635.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thankfully acknowledge the financial support for this research from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Maranhão (FAPEMA), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).
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Appendix
Appendix
Appendix A: Acronyms General Terms
ANTAQ | Agência Nacional de Transportes Aquaviários |
|---|---|
AR | Annual Reports |
CSR | Corporate Social Responsibility |
EMS | Environmental Management Systems |
ER | Environmental Reports |
GHC | Greenhouse Gas |
GMEP | Green Marine Environmental Program |
GRI | Global Reporting Initiative |
IR | Integrated Reports |
MR | Management Reports |
PCS | Port Community System |
SDGs | Sustainable Development Goals |
SR | Sustainability Reports |
UN | United Nations |
Appendix B: Acronyms Port Authorities
APPA | Administração dos Portos de Paranaguá e Antonina |
|---|---|
CDC | Companhia Docas do Ceará |
CDP | Companhia Docas do Pará |
CDRJ | Companhia Docas do Rio de Janeiro |
CDSA | Companhia Docas de Santana |
CDSS | Companhia Docas São Sebastião |
CODEBA | Companhia das Docas Estado da Bahia |
CODERN | Companhia Docas do Rio Grande do Norte |
CODESA | Companhia Docas do Espirito Santo |
COMAP | Companhia Municipal de Administração Portuária |
DOCAS-PB | Companhia Docas da Paraíba |
EMAP | Empresa Maranhense de Administração Portuária |
PORTO DO RECIFE | Autoridade Portuária do Porto do Recife |
PORTOS RS | Portos do Rio Grande do Sul |
SCPAR | SC Participações e Parcerias |
SNPH | Superintendência Estadual de Navegação, Portos e Hidrovias |
SOPH-RO | Sociedade Portos e Hidrovias do Estado de Rondônia |
SPA | Santos Port Authority |
SPI | Superintendência do Porto de Itajaí |
SUAPE | Complexo Industrial Portuário de Suape |
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Cunha, D.R., Pereira, N.N., de Santana Porte, M. et al. Sustainability practices for SDGs: a study of Brazilian ports. Environ Dev Sustain 26, 9923–9944 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03126-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03126-y