HHLA's climate-neutral container handling facility recertified

TÜV NORD has reissued the certification of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA)’s Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA) as a climate-neutral company. CTA became the first container handling facility in the world to receive climate-neutral certification in 2019. The latest certification highlights  CTA’s pioneering role as a sustainable, innovative company.

Significant drop in CTA's CO2 emissions

Angela Titzrath, Chair of HHLA’s Executive Board, noted: “Our technological excellence as well as process efficiency make climate-neutral container handling possible. We are moving closer to our goal of becoming climate-neutral throughout the group by 2040." During the certified period from January to December 2021, CTA's CO2 emissions decreased by 26.3 per cent to approximately 11,000 tonnes. Seaborne cargo throughput at the Port of Hamburg increased by 2 per cent to 128.7 metric tons over the same period in 2020, while container throughput grew by 2.2 per c ent to 8.7 million TEUs.

The drop in emissions has resulted from considerably reduced diesel consumption due to the conversion to all-electric automated guided vehicles (AGVs). Nearly 90 per cent of the AGVs in operation at CTA now run on green electricity instead of diesel. By 2023, all AGVs are expected to be converted to fast-charging, lithium-ion batteries. 

Forward-looking solutions for a green port 

The 14 container gantry cranes for seaborne handling, the 52 fully electrified gantry cranes in the container block storage area and the four rail gantry cranes are already powered by green electricity. Processes that still cause CO2 emissions are offset by compensation certificates, HHLA said. Plans are being laid to make other terminal processes climate-neutral through automated, digitalised ongoing operations.

sh/sb