Drivers and Actions of Ports towards Contributing to the SDGs: an initial portfolio analysis on the World Port Sustainability Program

In March 2018 the World Port Sustainability Program (WPSP) was introduced. The program aims to collect, coordinate and communicate good practices between ports and port associations. However, the effectiveness of the program and its projects have not been measured or analyzed. This paper aims to provide an initial methodology to analyze the effectiveness of the WPSP. As literature on Sustainable Development (SD) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and port development are converging, SD and CSR take a central place in this paper. By conducting a literature study, the impact of ports and benefits of engaging in CSR are discussed. This reveals that ports primarily engage with CSR out of “license to operate” considerations. The qualitative analysis of the WPSP analyzes 23 port projects initiated by various ports around the world. The effectiveness is analyzed by linking the projects the targets of SDG 9, 14 and 15. The paper recommends that further research is needed to propose a well-constructed methodology to measure the WPSP its effectiveness.