Port accessA challenge set out in the Strategic Plan to establish the Port as a European environmental reference.
Oregi: “The Basque Country is heading towards logistics excellence”.
Ms Ana Oregi, the Basque Minister for the Environment and Territorial Policy, presented the Chairman of the Port Authority of Bilbao, Mr Asier Atutxa, with the EMAS Certificate for Environmental Performance, accrediting the Port of Bilbao with its registration in the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme.
In the words of Atutxa “with this certificate, the Port Authority continues on track to making Bilbao a reference port as well as voluntarily integrating socially responsible policies and criteria, as established in the Port of Bilbao Strategic Plan 2013-2017”.
Minister Oregi emphasized that “the Port of Bilbao’s interest in obtaining this environmental certification demonstrates how the Basque Country is heading towards logistics excellence where sustainability is the base of any initiative for its development”.
Atutxa went on to say “This accreditation is one step more in our organization’s commitment to social responsibility, whose aim is to respond to the fundamental question of public enterprises’ external responsibilities needing to coincide with citizens’ rights.”
The first step taken by the Port Authority in this respect was when it obtained an Integrated Quality, Prevention and
Environmental System (according to UNE-EN-ISO 9001, OSHAS 18001 and UNE-EN-ISO 14001 norms) which includes actions dedicated to planning, supervision and constant improvement in its activities. Nonetheless – given the Port Authority’s exemplary commitment to its users and customers, its role to energize the port community in its advance towards the incorporation of social responsibility and the need for excellence in its environmental and economic performances – it considered that the maintenance and improvement of is integrated management system needed to register for EMAS III.
