Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Employee stakeholders represent an opportunity for engagement around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Using the Ports of Tacoma and Rotterdam as case examples, this study seeks to understand how to better leverage the employee’s understanding of the CSR initiatives specific to environmental sustainability and alternative fuel consumption by sea-going transport vessels. The goal is to provide the Ports with insight into the effectiveness of their CSR messaging strategies to create employee buy-in. Background: The Port of Tacoma (PoT) provides bunkering (fueling) services to its maritime customers for their transport needs. The PoT seeks to partner with Puget Sound Energy to provide a cleaner fuel alternative - Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) via a storage and fueling facility. The public at large is uninformed as to the value of this CSR initiative and are largely being informed of the LNG convergence process through environmental activists who are opposed to fossil fuels in any form. The study considers how employee engagement with at the PoT could create a more informed discourse around this (and other) CSR initiatives. The Port of Rotterdam was chosen as a aspirant due to their advances in utilizing cleaner fuel alternatives and leveraging innovation and technology. The study will be conducted to determine how and to what extent employee engagement through messaging strategies was strategically utilized to assist the Port of Rotterdam in advancing their CSR environmental initiatives.