The Environmental Ship Index (ESI) technical advisory group met in-person in Hamburg 16-17 April to focus on two main agenda items: the technical alignment between the ESI and the Environmental Port Index (EPI) approaches for evaluating actual emissions from cruise vessels at berth, and the revision of the core new ESI formula to be implemented from January 2027. Over the two days, colleagues from the ports of Amsterdam, Antwerp-Bruges, Barcelona, Hamburg, HAROPA, Long Beach, Los Angeles, New York / New Jersey, and Vancouver exchanged views and reached agreement on both topics, together with experts from IAPH associate member Starcrest, EPI and class society DNV. The agreed technical alignment with EPI will enhance cooperation between the schemes. The new agreed ESI core formula ‘raises the bar’ of vessel performance in line with international developments, and will significantly upgrade and update ESI upon its implementation in January 2027. This was the first ESI technical advisory group meeting coordinated by OceanScore, the new ESI administrator as of January 2026. In parallel, ESI recently launched a separate module evaluating the performance of vessels when it comes to underwater radiated noise (URN) – a topic of increasing significance for ports and ships, as recognized by IMO. This module will be presented and discussed during a dedicated #IAPH2026 webinar on Wednesday 6 May.
