Sustainability has become the aim of many ports around the world. The focus on the climate and environmental impact of port activities, and on the reduction of resource use is already an integrative part of port sustainable developments. However, a proactive and strategic environmental approach to sustainable development is in the focus for more and more port authorities. This approach recommends engagement of different port stakeholders such as port authorities, customer companies, society around, consulting companies, local and regional authorities, etc.in the development process. Engaging port stakeholders can assure the development of symbiotic relationships and synergies between stakeholders creating added value (environmental social and economic) for all of them and assuring the success of the project.

Port of Aalborg initiated together with Aalborg University the project, with the work title ‘Strategic Environmental Development’ which is a very ambitious strategic commitment to create added value through a proactive environmental management approach. Port of Aalborg is remarkable by its good relations with many of its stakeholders. Even so, no strategic stakeholder engagement system is in place. Many methods exist for stakeholder engagement. Finding a single one that will fit the ‘Strategic environmental development’ project can be challenging. Inspiration from European leading ports such as Port of Rotterdam is crucial. Port of Rotterdam has the ambition to become the most sustainable port in the world and has years of experience with stakeholder involvement in its processes. An insight in different methodologies of stakeholder engagement permits therefor to develop a strategic stakeholder engagement model for Port of Aalborg and Aalborg University’s ambitious project.