Sustainable Flow

Sustainable Flow Approaching Significant Project Milestones

Sustainable Flow is now a one-year-old project. The first year has meant a lot of background work towards the project goals and activities such as the development of digital solutions and energy saving measures. Both expected results support Interreg Central Baltic programme priority for “improved environment and resource use” and its objective of “PO5 – decreased CO2 emissions”.

Port of Rauma is one of the pilot ports involved in the project in addition to the ports of Pori, Norrköping, Oxelösund, Tallinn, Mariehamn and Riga.
Photo: Minna Keinänen-Toivola

To establish the baseline and current situation at the pilot ports, site visits to all the ports were performed in addition to the analyses. Port operations, information exchange as well as business model and business logic were among the many things studied during the first two periods of the project. Furthermore, the current situation and the potential on energy saving and renewable energy in the pilot ports were examined to support one of the two goals of the project: a concept for energy saving measures and use of renewable energy in ports.

What has been accomplished during the first year?

  • Baseline measures and establishment of target levels and current situation
  • Analyses and surveys
  • Informing and involving stakeholders
    • 41 events and fairs held and attended
    • 29 articles published by partners and media
  • Meetings after meetings, lots of documentation and supporting materials that will eventually lead to the tangible results of the project (digital tool, guidance tool, decision-making tool and solar panel installations)

Mattias Eriksson, Project Manager from Åland University of Applied Sciences, would describe the first year of the project as an interesting and versatile journey.

–  The cooperation with the other project partners has been one part that has widely exceeded my expectations, the cooperation in project deliverables and face to face discussions has been very rewarding and we have established long lasting contacts for future projects, he remarks.

The project is well on schedule, thanks to the joint efforts of the project consortium.

–  I am very much looking forward to the coming years of the project and reaching the set goals with continuous cross-border cooperation, Eriksson continues.

In May, the project consortium visited Maritime Day in Mariehamn, Åland.
Photo: Hanna Kajander

Digital Tool in the Procurement Phase

In spring 2024 the project carried out a very successful market mapping for the digital tool, receiving over ten responses to the survey.

– It is evident that there is interest in the markets to take part in the tender process of the digital tool. The call for tendering is already out there, Heikki Koivisto, the Project Lead Manager states.

The digital tool and solutions will help all seven pilot ports involved in the project to make well-informed decisions related to increasing environmental demands. The development of the digital tool is expected to commence later this year. The public tendering of the digital tool opened in June 2024 and will be closed in August. You can read more about it here.

Sustainable Flow was represented at the Maritime Day event in Åland.
Photo: Hanna Kajander

What’s Next?

The active cooperation between the project consortium and the pilot ports continues. In addition to the digital tool, the planning of the guidance and decision-making tools will also get under way in the project’s second year. The open access decision-making tool will be a part of the digital tool.

Dissemination of project actions and results to target groups and more will be ongoing throughout the whole project to ensure durability of the project results. In addition to the fact that many articles have been published by partners themselves, the project has gained the interest of the media and received publicity in expert publications. Sustainable Flow has been actively shared on social media by the project consortium as well.

Despite the great amount of preparatory and background work that has been carried out during the project’s first year, a lot of practical work and visibility to stakeholders has been achieved as well. This will only increase during the project’s second year as the testing and implementation of the digital tool, among other things, will move forward.

Writers: Meri-Maaria Salo, Hanna Kajander