Europe's port associations have put a new tool in front of the sector: the Green Innovation Compass, now live on the websites of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) and the European Federation of Inland Ports (EFIP).

The online platform, available at GreenInnovationCompass.eu, helps maritime and inland ports find practical solutions for greener, more efficient operations. It pools research, case studies and hands-on experience from port projects across Europe. The focus is technologies that cut emissions, improve efficiency and modernise infrastructure.

Where did the platform come from?

The Compass grew out of MAGPIE, a European research project that assembled ports, companies, researchers and public authorities around one table. That consortium work now lives on as a public, searchable resource.

Coverage spans five areas:

• electrification
• alternative fuels
• automation
• digitalisation
• resilience

For each technology, the platform explains how it works, where ports can deploy it, and what prerequisites — technical or otherwise — a port needs before adoption. Ports can search for solutions based on their own needs, priorities and project timelines, and can study examples from other European ports to learn from what those operators have already done.

Notably, the Compass does not push a single answer. Rather than recommending one solution for every port, it lets users compare options side by side — a nod to the reality that a Rhine inland terminal and a deepsea container hub face very different constraints.

Why cooperation between ports matters

ESPO and EFIP want the platform to drive greater cooperation across Europe's port sector. Both organisations argue that sharing experience helps ports overcome challenges they have in common — electrification costs, fuel choices, permitting — rather than each port solving them alone.

"The Green Innovation Compass allows for inland ports to see what projects others have already realised," said Turi Fiorito, Director of EFIP.

Isabelle Ryckbost, Secretary General of ESPO, echoed that call. She encouraged ports not only to use the platform but to feed their own knowledge back into it, widening the pool of case studies for the next cohort of port authorities weighing investment decisions.

What happens after MAGPIE ends?

Sustainability of the tool is already settled. The Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe (ALICE) will maintain the platform once the MAGPIE project winds down, and the Compass is designed to keep expanding as ports and other organisations contribute new projects and examples.

For port authorities and their terminal operators, the practical value is pre-vetted intelligence: instead of commissioning scoping studies from scratch, they can benchmark against documented deployments elsewhere in Europe. For carriers and forwarders, faster port-side adoption of electrification, alternative fuels and digitalised processes points toward greener handling chains and, over time, more standardised port data flows.

Expect the database to thicken. With ALICE at the helm and both associations pushing contributions, the Compass is set to grow into a standing reference as European ports press on with decarbonisation and infrastructure modernisation.