Logistics Tech Outlook

PortXchange
The Intelligence Behind Decarbonisation and Cleaner Ports

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Sjoerd de Jager, PortXchange | Logistics Tech Outlook | Top Digital Emissions Monitoring Platform in EuropeSjoerd de Jager, Co-Founder and Managing Director
Across Europe and North America, many medium-sized ports are required to report their emissions annually, but are often shorthanded. Their small sustainability teams manage environmental planning alongside finance or strategic responsibilities, while navigating complex monitoring regulations. Much of their time goes into gathering and cleaning fragmented emissions data from visiting vessels, leaving limited capacity to focus on reducing emissions.

This practical constraint is what PortXchange solves, rethinking how ports collect, validate and use emissions data to move from reporting to reduction.

“Ports rely on manual processes, with 75 percent of effort spent on data collection and validation. When effort is concentrated on preparation rather than insight, progress slows,” says Sjoerd de Jager, co-founder and managing director.

Measuring Emissions from Port Operations

PortXchange did not begin with emissions, but with efficiency. Its first product, Synchroniser, was a port call optimisation platform built to improve coordination between shipping lines, terminals and port authorities. By tracking vessel movements across major ports, PortXchange uncovered a systemic inefficiency. Ships frequently steam at full speed towards ports only to wait at anchorage. This “hurry up and wait” pattern creates congestion, raises risks and burns unnecessary fuel.

Seeing this pattern across multiple ports, PortXchange recognised that poor coordination was not just an operational problem but a source of avoidable emissions. EmissionInsider emerged from that insight, giving ports clear visibility into emissions without adding to the manual preparation.

  • Ports rely on manual processes, with 75 percent of effort spent on data collection and validation. When effort is concentrated on preparation rather than insight, progress slows.


At its core, EmissionInsider automates workflows by combining three core data layers. PortXchange digitally maps each port, capturing berths, fairways, anchorages and turning basins. It then overlays vessel movement data using automatic identification system data and a verified vessel database from Lloyd’s Register. These inputs are processed through a proprietary calculation model developed with The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research and aligned with the GHG Protocol and international reporting frameworks.

Each calculation accounts for more than 40 real-world variables, including weather and currents, engine type and vessel age. Calibration tests against vessel sensors show minimal deviation between measured and calculated emissions, producing audit-ready data that ports can trust. The objective is not decimal-level precision, but consistent measurement that tracks progress and compares year-on-year performance.

Trust is built through validation. From the outset, PortXchange works with ports during onboarding to confirm geofences, standardise naming conventions and review anomalies together. Emission results are compared with those from previous reporting cycles to ensure consistency and accelerate adoption.

The result becomes tangible once that trust is established. Reporting that once took months is completed in days. Smaller ports receive regulation-ready reports, while larger ports integrate emissions data directly via application programming interfaces (API). Teams still validate results internally, but are freed from manual data work to focus on decarbonisation strategy

From Data to Decarbonisation

Beyond reporting, EmissionInsider reveals ports where emissions concentrate and identifies the processes that drive them. Combined with Synchroniser, it enables just-in-time arrivals that reduce anchorage time, ease congestion, improve safety, and lower emissions through better connections rather than new infrastructure.

As ports mature, the focus shifts from compliance to decision-making. Advanced ports use PortXchange’s data to evaluate interventions, calculate ROIs and plan decarbonisation. It acts as a strategic advisor to the Port of Rotterdam, where emissions intelligence feeds directly into internal systems via APIs, supporting internal reporting and capital decisions. Belfast Harbour uses consistent data to remove uncertainty from annual compliance, enabling proactive, long-term decarbonisation initiatives.

PortXchange sees collaboration as the next phase of port decarbonisation. It secures data sharing across the port ecosystem and helps overcome the fragmentation that slows progress. Its pragmatic approach balances transparency and cybersecurity, which turns data into a shared asset. In doing so, PortXchange equips ports to move beyond reporting towards measurable reductions, facilitating cleaner air for nearby communities and more resilient, sustainable port operations.

Deep Dive

Building Credible Emissions Insight in Complex Port Environments

Ports sit at the center of mounting regulatory pressure and public scrutiny around emissions, yet many authorities operate with lean teams and fragmented data. Annual reporting obligations, particularly across Europe and North America, require defensible, year-over-year consistency even as sustainability teams juggle strategy, compliance and energy transition planning. For executive buyers, the challenge is no longer whether emissions should be measured, but how measurement can stop consuming time and support informed action. The most persistent friction comes from data itself. Vessel information arrives from multiple external sources, varies in quality and often requires extensive cleaning before it can be used. Many ports report that the majority of effort is spent assembling datasets rather than interpreting results. That imbalance delays decarbonisation initiatives and weakens confidence when regulators or auditors question figures. A credible digital approach must shorten the path from raw vessel activity to defensible emissions outputs, while remaining transparent enough to stand up to external review. Accuracy depends on context. Emissions cannot be inferred reliably without understanding where a vessel is, how it is moving and what conditions influence its fuel use. Platforms that digitally map port areas and combine that geometry with live vessel signals and verified ship characteristics reduce reliance on averages or assumptions, provided that the underlying calculation logic is visible and open to validation. When that is aligned with established reporting frameworks and tested against real measurements, ports gain numbers that are consistent year over year and explainable to external stakeholders. Consistency matters more than extreme precision, since trend direction is what validates progress. Usability is equally decisive. Some ports want dashboards that let teams explore emissions by terminal, vessel type, or time period. Others lack capacity and simply need compliant reports delivered on schedule or data feeds that integrate into existing systems. For buyers, the key consideration is whether an emissions platform can adapt to different operating realities without adding implementation or validation overhead. Flexibility in how insights are consumed ensures that smaller ports are not excluded and larger ones can embed emissions intelligence into broader planning processes. Time saved on preparation can then be redirected toward policy design, investment evaluation and collaboration with shipping lines. Executives are also paying closer attention to how emissions insight connects to day-to-day port efficiency. Visibility into avoidable emissions highlights the cost of congestion and waiting times, supporting initiatives such as just-in-time arrivals. When emissions reporting is built on the same data foundation as vessel movement and port activity, ports can quantify the environmental benefit of smoother coordination while improving safety and throughput. This linkage turns emissions measurement from a compliance task into a management tool. Within this landscape, PortXchange stands out to buyers seeking a disciplined, scalable emissions monitoring solution. Its EmissionInsider platform automates vessel-level emissions detection within digitally defined port areas, using a proprietary model developed alongside an independent research institute and informed by authoritative vessel databases. The approach reduces manual data work, delivers outputs aligned with regulatory expectations and offers results through dashboards, reports or APIs, depending on port needs. For executives aiming to move from reporting fatigue toward actionable emissions insight, PortXchange provides a pragmatic, operationally grounded path rooted in practical port realities. ...Read more
Top Digital Emissions Monitoring Platform in Europe 2026

Company
PortXchange

Management
Sjoerd de Jager, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Description
PortXchange provides digital solutions that help ports, shipping lines and terminals collaborate, optimise operations and reduce emissions. It delivers accurate real-time insights and reveals operational inefficiencies that create avoidable emissions. With emissions intelligence, port-call optimisation and flexible APIs, PortXchange supports ports of all sizes in meeting regulations and building cleaner, more efficient operations.