The majority of the Carbon Neutral Port 2035 programme’s measures will be implemented during the first five years, 2020–2024. Measures will be updated throughout the programme, as new solutions and technologies come onto the market.

Specific targets include:

• 25% reduction in vessel emissions (shore power at nine berths; making alternative shipping fuels available).
• 60% reduction in port diesel plant emissions (installing electrical infrastructure for straddle carriers, heavy lift trucks, etc); encouraging use of biofuels).

Separately the port has announced that together with the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency it will deepen the Vuosaari fairway and part of the harbour area from 11m to 13m. The project will be carried out during 2020 and 2021.

The project will include dredging around 1M m3 of soil and excavating about 0.3M m3 of underwater rock from the seabed. Non-usable dredging spoils will be transported to the Vuosaari offshore disposal site. The rock from the underwater excavation will be transported by barge to be used for rock filling in the City of Helsinki’s regional construction in Hernesaari, West Harbour and the Vuosaari marine centre.

The aim of the project is to improve the transport economics of container transport in particular and develop the overall competitiveness of the harbour.

Transporting the excavated rock suitable for construction by sea instead of the street network will bring significant cost savings and reduce the environmental impact of the transport, said the port.

The total cost of the project is estimated at €33.6M. No costing estimates have been published on the carbon-neutral plans.