New research will be released on November 29, taking an in-depth look at four major retail companies that import goods into the United States and map their relationships with the fossil-fueled cargo carriers they hire to transport their goods.
The research will focus on Walmart, Target, Amazon, and IKEA, aiming to “offer a chance to better understand how household brands move their products into the U.S. via maritime shipping routes”
Written by Stand.earth and Pacific Environment, they pledge to expose which retail companies and carriers are most responsible for the nation’s port pollution crisis.
The retail companies in the report are some of the top U.S. importers via ocean container transport, comprising 7% of the total estimated imports to the U.S. in 2020, with Walmart and Target in first and second place, respectively
The partners alsp added that the findings will reveal close relationships between major retailers and the cargo carriers that transport the companies’ consumer goods, and how that partnership showcases the immense possibilities for both sectors to jointly address the growing demand for zero-emissions cargo shipping.
Moreover, the findings will reveal the cargo shipping routes favored by the four companies, the emissions impacts of those routes, and how U.S. port communities are being saddled with increasing rates of pollution thanks to the ongoing cargo shipping backlog.
These pandemic-fueled demand increases and record-breaking profits, coupled with the supply chain crisis, has revealed the current maritime shipping system is ripe for transformation, and there is room for retail brands and cargo carriers to absorb the cost of the transition to fossil-free, zero-emissions shipping
the partners stated.
The report comes at a time when during COP26, governments and CEOs from around the world launched the Clydebank Declaration to establish green shipping corridors among some of the busiest maritime shipping routes.
