Report: Walmart, Other Importers Need to Speed Zero-Emissions Shift

“The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have a unique responsibility to end ship pollution and should lead the United States toward achieving 100% zero-emission shipping by 2040.” That’s the first key takeaway for ports and policymakers in a research report from the Ship It Zero campaign released on March 1. Its key takeaway for companies and sectors was “Major U.S. importers across sectors must make more near-term, year-over-year commitments to abandon dirty, fossil-fueled ships this decade.”

The report “All Brands On Deck: Top Furniture, Fashion, Retail & Technology Companies Must Act to Abandon Dirty Ships,” analyzed the climate and other pollution impacts of 18 companies importing their goods into the U.S. in 2021. Altogether they were responsible for 3.5 million metric tons of climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, with Walmart, Target and Home Depot leading the way. Collectively those three produced the majority of climate and air pollution of all companies analyzed.

“If shipping were a country, it would be the world’s sixth largest climate polluter,” Ship It Zero noted in a press release. “But since maritime shipping negotiated itself out of the U.N. Paris Agreement, the effort to reduce emissions in the industry has been slower than in other sectors.” Companies reliant on shipping could change that, with public commitments to zero-emissions shipping. But they’re lagging in doing so.

“Walmart and Home Depot, in particular, are neglecting their responsibilities to extend their climate commitments to the seas and do right by U.S. port communities,” said the report’s main author, Madeline Rose, climate campaign director at Pacific Environment, a partner in the Ship It Zero campaign. Neither company has made any public commitments.

In addition, “Current 2040 commitments from Target, Amazon, IKEA and others are too late,” the press release noted. They’re “a step in the right direction but it simply doesn’t go far enough,” said Kendra Ulrich, shipping campaigns director for Stand.earth, another Ship It Zero partner.

“We urge Walmart, Home Depot and all companies that continue to rely on fossil-fueled ocean freight services to abandon dirty ships now and compete to put their goods on the world’s first zero-emission vessels,” said Rose.