Nearly Zero Energy Ports: a necessity or a green upgrade?Nearly Zero Energy Ports: a necessity or a green upgrade? Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2022-05-092020enWe would like to thank the Onassis Foundation for funding this specific research work through the “Scholarships for Hellenes” and the Rethymno port’s personnel and authorities for their precious aid.Ports are situated in susceptible, to climate change, areas. The continuous technological advances on the global market and the growth of the trade activities are forcing ports to find new ways to be both competitive and harmonize with sustainable development’s “legislation”. Specifically, this actually means to practically evaluate all the possible actions and the mean which can be utilized in order to achieve their optimization and greenification. The main objective of this paper is to investigate, analyse and evaluate, through the proposed methodology, various energy-related data of the port of Rethymno and propose a hypothetic model to achieve the near Zero Energy Port (nZEP) concept and the criteria that have to be fulfilled in order to accomplish such an innovative purpose. The methodology to assess a port into the nZEP’s concept is presented, including various crucial guidelines and criteria to define a port as nZEP. Last but not least, the research outcomes specify that there are some curtain gaps and opportunities. Thus, this paper establishes an educational and innovative handbook about an initial attempt to greenify a Mediterranean port and adapt it to nZEP’s concept, utilizing good and essential practices and interventions/implementations in order to achieve this intention.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science4101Sifakis_et_al_IOP Conf. Ser. Earth Environ. Sci._410(1)_2020.pdfChania [Greece]Library of TUC2022-05-09application/pdf839.4 kBfree Sifakis Nikolaos Σηφακης Νικολαος Tsoutsos Theocharis Τσουτσος Θεοχαρης IOP Publishing near Zero Energy Port (nZEP) Sustainable development International trade Climate change