Ship It Zero Campaign Report Released:

“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.

But the ports were a secondary focus of the report, “All Brands On Deck: Top Furniture, Fashion, Retail & Technology Companies Must Act to Abandon Dirty Ships,” which analyzed the climate and other pollution impacts of 18 companies in four sectors importing their goods into the US in 2021, as e-commerce demands skyrocketed. Altogether they were responsible for 3.5 million metric tons of climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, more than 92,000 tons of NOx, 53,000 tons of SOx, and 16,000 tons of particulate matter.

While climate impacts are the primary focus, health impacts were also noted in the report:

These retail, furniture, technology, and fashion companies pummeled U.S. port communities with smog-forming, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. These pollutants create asthma, cancer, and other life-threatening conditions in U.S. port-adjacent and coastal communities where residents are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, and Brown working-class people.

Walmart, Target, and Home Depot were the largest ocean import polluters in 2021. Combined, they accounted for 1,994,807 TEUs, almost half of the 4,250,021 TEUs of all 18 companies. For those companies, the key takeaway was “Major U.S. importers across sectors must make more near-term, year-over-year commitments to abandon dirty, fossil-fueled ships this decade.”

“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.” The Ship It Zero campaign, launched as a partnership between Pacific Environment and STAND.earth in July 2021, is dedicated to changing that—primarily through consumer pressure on the companies whose cargo is behind the pollution. This came after a November 2020 poll found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of Americans would be more likely to shop at companies that use cleaner ways to ship their goods.

“The Ship It Zero campaign was designed to build public awareness, education and pressure on consumer-facing retail/fashion, furniture companies, ranging from Home Depot to Walmart to LG to Nike,” Pacific Environment’s Long Beach-based Climate Campaigner Dawny’all Heydari told Random Lengths. “Our [immediate] goal is to educate consumers about the roles in which some of these major brands contribute to ship pollution, which adversely affects our climate and the health of nearby communities,” Heydari said. “Our overarching goal is to get companies to commit to 100% zero-mission shipping by 2030…. That’s something the city councils of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Minneapolis have endorsed.”

The timing for such a pressure campaign couldn’t be better. As the report notes, “There are more cargo ships on order in the ‘global pipeline’ than at any time since the 1990s, creating an unprecedented, but short-lived, window of opportunity to shift to greener shipping technology.” As it stands now, “Investments in zero-carbon container shipping are growing, but are not yet aligned with 1.5 degrees C pathway.” More precisely, “greenhouse gas emissions must halve by 2030 and be eliminated by 2040,” which requires at least 200 GHG-free cargo ships on the water by 2030. The industry is just 25% on the way to that goal, and even this 25% remains feedstock dependent,” it explains.

“All Brands On Deck” is Ship It Zero’s third and most comprehensive report documenting the climate impacts of leading importers.

“Ship It Zero’s latest report shows us that 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 Madeline Rose, Climate Campaign Director at Pacific Environment, lead author of the report. “Consumers overwhelmingly want their goods shipped on zero-emission ships and have reported that they’d move their business to companies with a cleaner ocean-climate footprint,” Rose said. “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.”

“Some companies have committed to zero-emission shipping such as Amazon, Target, and IKEA, which represents a step in the right direction but it simply doesn’t go far enough,” said Kendra Ulrich, Shipping Campaigns Director for Stand. earth. Today’s report shows that brands across various industries, from fashion to tech, need to increase their targets to achieve 100% zero-emission shipping by 2030. They must act now and rapidly clean up shipping to ensure a healthier, cleaner tomorrow for our communities and our oceans.”

Walmart was the top ocean import polluter, responsible for 788,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and 14.9 metric tons of the super climate pollutant methane and Target was second highest, with 544,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and 10 metric tons of methane in 2021. Home Depot was third with nearly 420,000 metric tons of carbon emissions and 8 metric tons of methane.

“Target is the No. 1 ocean import emitter in U.S. West Coast ports, as well as at the Port of Savannah, Georgia,” the report noted. It’s responsible for 17% of the TEUs counted at the San Pedro Bay ports, and 16.7% of the CO2. `Amazon is number two in San Pedro, and Ashley Furniture is number two in Long Beach. LG is number three in both.

LG is also the top tech company polluter nationwide, with 309,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 5.9 metric tons of methane on US imports in 2021. Nike topped the fashion companies analyzed, with 87,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 1.7 metric tons of methane.

“We launched in July of 2021 with our “Shady Ships” report, which was the first of its kind of analysis on retailer’s ship pollution…Target, Amazon, IKEA, and Walmart were our main targets.” Heydari said. Then, in October 2021, “Amazon and Ikea committed to the “Cargo Owners for Zero Emissions Vessels” [coZEV] initiative to transition products off fossil fuel ships by 2040.” With guidance from the Aspen Institute, they were joined by seven other companies, including Patagonia, Tchibo, and Unilever, but not Target.

After that, “Our campaign pivoted toward focusing on Target because Target we found was the top polluter in LA and Long Beach,” Heydari explained. “We had a report on cyber Monday 2021 called ‘Shady Routes’ which tracked the Target Walmart, Amazon, and Ikea preferred shipping routes across the Pacific to get more clarity as to where their pollution concentrated.”

In addition to Target’s heavy pollution, “We have a lot of infrastructure here in LA and Long Beach, lots of relationships.” Heydari noted. (For example, Wilmington-based Coalition For A Safe Environment is a Ship It Zero partner.) As a result, “We passed resolutions through the city councils of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Minneapolis, Target’s top port cities and its hometown, calling on the company and other retailers to abandon dirty ships by 2030.” All were passed unanimously: LA in Nov 2021, Long Beach in June 2022, and Minneapolis in September 2022.

A further sign of progress was announced the following week. On March 8, coZEV announced the launch of a new initiative, the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), co-founded by the Aspen Institute, Amazon, Patagonia. Its stated mission is “to enable companies to access zero-emission shipping solutions that are not currently available.”

“Through ZEMBA, freight buyers will accelerate the commercial deployment of zero-emission shipping, enable economies of scale, and help minimize maritime emissions,” coZEV said in a press release. “By working together, ZEMBA members will offer committed demand to build confidence among investors, carriers, ship owners, and producers of zero-emission fuels and renewable energy.”

Ship It Zero welcomed the announcement, saying it was “particularly encouraged by the focus on immediate action, noting the announcement’s commitment to issue a request for proposals for zero-emission shipping this year to move products by no later than 2025-2026,” adding that “We welcome the focus on ‘emissions on a lifecycle basis, for all greenhouse gasses, not limited to carbon dioxide,’ which major shipping carriers should take as a clear sign to stop investing in methane-emitting liquified natural gas (LNG).”

“We applaud the formation of ZEMBA and urge Walmart, Home Depot, Target, and all other major retailers to join this important collaborative platform,” Rose said. “Just last week, Walmart and Home Depot stated that they are working with freight partners to ‘encourage’ and ‘scale up’ sustainable shipping solutions; we urge them to make good on these commitments and help create zero-emission futures for port communities, our shared oceans, and our shared planet.”