On September 17th, the MAGPIE Consortium and the DeltaPort port-city ecosystem met for a day of presentations and discussions. 120 participants were present during the day. The morning focused on institutional messages from the local and regional governments as well as from the MAGPIE steering committee. There were also interventions concerning the port’s influence on regional development as well as its interaction with society, highlighting both the importance for the port to develop but also how it will promote regional well-being. Speakers included Ingo Brohl, District Administrator Kreis Wesel; Ulrike Westkamp, Mayor of Wesel; and Andreas Stolte, CEO DeltaPort; Arne-Jan Polman, MAGPIE project coordinator; Reyer Will, MAGPIE project manager; State Secretary Viktor Haase, Ministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Verkehr des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen; and Dr. Klaus Krumme, Executive Director Joint Centre Urban Systems (JUS) University Duisburg-Essen.
In the afternoon, two parallel sessions were held in which speakers first presented the context and then held in-depth discussions with the audience regarding implementation, local barriers, and integration with other projects being developed in DeltaPort. The session titled “The Green Port of the Future as Facilitator of Innovative Transport Concepts – The Example of LOG4NRW and a Comparison with MAGPIE Demonstrations” was moderated by Martine Gatsonides and included presentations from Andreas Stolte (DeltaPort), Till Kösters and Gunnar Platz (Planco Consulting), and Jasper Tanis (Ecorys and Green Inland Ports project). During their presentations, they highlighted the role of inland ports in connecting the seaports and the hinterland and how they can use this role to transform transportation in innovative and green manners. One topic that came up continuously was using waterways to get as close to the last mile as possible and decongest the roads.
In the second session titled “The Green Port of the Future as supporter of the Energy Transition”, moderated by Arne-Jan Polman, Moritz Kroell (H2PEG), Gloria Goncalves (EDP), and Peter van Wijlick (Port of Venlo and PIONEERS project) spoke. They highlighted the ways in which ports could support the energy transition from different perspectives and solutions – the creation of investment platforms by ports to support innovation, as providers of green fuels to different modalities, and even simply the energy transition in the port functioning as well.
One interesting topic that came up in both discussions with the audience was regarding the involvement of different stakeholders. In the first session, the focus was on getting the general public and various stakeholders involved in and supporting solutions such as the one presented in the EcoPort813. In contrast, the second session focused on ensuring the collaboration of different stakeholders to ensure data sharing between ports and between ports and companies. A takeaway from the entire day was that various stakeholders needed to be educated, engaged, and part of the creation of the smart, green ports of the future.
