Monday, February 4, 2019 - 14:33 by ce-press
For the Port of OldenLoen the environment is paramount. “Guests are visiting our destination to see pure nature, and everyone has to consider the impact of what we are doing to commercialise nature experiences,” explained Solve Oldeide, operations manager Nordfjord Havn.
Here are a few examples:
- The gondola Loen Skylift is built with the most environmentally-friendly technology available
- Troll cars using environmental friendly bio-diesel bring guests all the way up to the glacier
- Briksdal built a second gravel in close dialogue with the environmental department at county council to avoid any unnecessary impact on the nature
- Local supplier of coaches is bringing in new hybrid coaches
The port authority also contributes in taking care of the environment. “As one of 12 ports in Norway implementing the use of EPI from 2020, we will honour the environmentally-friendly ships in port,” commented Oldeide.
Out of more than 100 calls last year, the port only had four with reported environmental issues. “These four incidents, however, need to be handled properly, and according to both Marpol and local regulations, to avoid future similar incidents.”
The port authority also needs to respond when local inhabitants report situations that are of concern. For example, when a ship in port was surrounded with smoke and no feedback was received from the ship, the agent or the owners. “After several attempts were made but were unsuccessful in getting an explanation from the agent/owner, the Port of OldenLoen saw no other solution than to inform this ship that we would cancel the booking for the 2019 season due to environmental issues,” said Oldeide.
“We are all ‘in the same boat’ - shipowners, ports, attractions and local communities. If we do not succeed helping each other to improve business, good business will soon turn into bad business,” he concluded.
