New Sustainability Initiatives at Porto Montenegro

The marina sector is ideally positioned to promote environmental best practices, and marinas around the world are working to help conserve local biodiversity, control pollution and promote responsible behaviour. Enhancing the natural environment and benefiting the local community, Porto Montenegro Marina is one of the most sustainable yachting destinations in the world with a long-standing history of sustainable initiatives.

“Porto Montenegro, designed by yachting professionals, is the industry leading multi-award-winning superyacht homeport marina, with services, facilities, and amenities that exceed the needs and high standards expected of our industry,” says Tony Browne, marina director – Porto Montenegro.

“Therefore we are immensely proud of our unpreceded dedication to innovative sustainability marine practices and are continually pioneering best practices in our sector to protect our beautiful location for future generations to come.”

The award-winning Porto Montenegro Marina is the first in the world to be given platinum-standard status thanks to its long-standing commitment to environmental consciousness and towards a culture of eco-consciousness. Spearheading the project is marina director Tony Browne, whose approach to the development of Porto Montenegro’s marina has social and environmental sustainability as a primary objective.

Porto Montenegro’s ongoing partnership with Adriatic Marinas and the Institute of Marina Biology, committed to creating a green future together, are implementing an exciting new project, SHAREMED, at the marina. 

SHAREMED (sharing and enhancing capabilities to address environmental threats in the Mediterranean Sea) aims to increase the capacity of Mediterranean regional, subregional and local authorities and the scientific community to jointly assess and address hazards related to pollution and environmental threats in Mediterranean waters. One of the project’s activities is the study of fouling and introducing species on solid substrates in the sea, following the identification of marinas as the most suitable locations for this type of analysis. In particular, Tivat Marina has been recognised as a place of rich biodiversity and a habitat for many benthic species.

“Specifically, partnering with Porto Montenegro for this project, we continue to research marine species by installing the so-called ARMS – Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures device on which we monitor the development of living communities,” comments Dr Slavica Petović, Project Coordinator of the Institute of Marine Biology.

Located in Boka Bay, one of the world’s largest natural harbours in the Eastern Mediterranean, Porto Montenegro Marina has always been focused on sustainable initiatives, from reducing carbon footprint to preserving nature. From the surrounding seas to the impressive forests and mountains beyond, every aspect has been thought of. To protect against fires in the surrounding bay areas, Porto Montenegro launched their own fire boat which helps to serve the local area as well as the neighbouring Tivat community.

“Climate change and rising sea levels are problems faced by this generation,” comments Roddy Blair, marina manager at Porto Montenegro. “Porto Montenegro, as the leading superyacht marina in the Mediterranean area, does its best to help the case and is ideally positioned to promote environmental best practices.”

Porto Montenegro has always done its best to help the surrounding waters as the pioneer of the Seabin project in 2016, which proved to be highly successful in removing floating rubbish from the marina waters. The marina’s built-in infrastructure is dedicated to environmentally conscious systems; a grey and black water-pump out system available on all berths over 20m free of charge, paper press on site for cardboard and paper ensures efficient transportation to recycling plants alongside a hazardous waste collection service with government approved methods.

In addition, the sole use of reusable glass water bottles throughout refilled from large sustainable quantities of drinking water ensure that single-use plastic is severely reduced. Reducing the marina’s carbon footprint for example, with the use of solar panels to heat water on a number of service blocks to operating electric vehicles within the marina help keep omissions low.