Developing Port Sustainability Awareness through Implementing Serious Games: Recommending innovative approaches

Abstract Ports are a key element in maritime shipping as they play as vital hubs of international trade, comprising of 90% cargo being transported through the sea. Encouraging sustainability practices in maritime industry, however, has been an issue as ports innovate in various methods to promote sustainability, but are struggling in raising sustainability awareness of their leaders, employees, suppliers, customers, and stakeholders. As behavior change towards sustainability could not be achieved through formal education or training, an experiential learning method called serious or educational games are proposed in this study. This study firstly examines various sustainability practices from 4 (four) modern ports, namely the Hamburg Port Authority, Port of Amsterdam, PSA, and Pelindo. Furthermore, it proposes 3 (three) serious or educational games concepts that addresses critical sustainability issues, such as port infrastructure development, port function as a supply chain integrator, sustainable procurement, and terminal bottleneck that leads to energy inefficiency. These games are VR Port Sustainability Game (VR PSG), Port Circular Integrator Game (PCIG), and Back-to-Basic Sustainable Terminal Design Game (b2b-STDG).