Vinicuis Patel, director of port administration at Porto do Açu, Brazil, has been appointed chair of the board of the Environmental Ship Index (ESI). Vinicius is also IAPH vice president for the Central and South America region, a position to which he was elected in 2024. Vinicius succeeds Eric van der Schans, director environmental management at the Port of Rotterdam, who was appointed as chair in 2020. ESI is the established global standard for ports to incentivise the improvement of shipping’s environmental performance. ESI has been recognised by the IMO as the standard basis for port incentives for low- and zero-carbon ships. Vinicius’s appointment comes at a significant time for the index, with an expanded suite of performance modules to support ports and vessel owners on the journey to decarbonisation and lowering emissions coming online in 2026. The index was created by major ports in cooperation with the IAPH and has been fully integrated into the IAPH’s governance structure since 2020.
