Walmart Named Americas Top Maritime Polluter

Following the release of a report on July 20 which revealed which retail chains are polluting the most in America due to their shipping decisions, shipping companies will likely receive more requests for lowering their carbon footprint. 

The first environmental and public health impact study, conducted by non-governmental organizations Pacific Environment and Stand.earth, has found that some of the largest American retailers’ use of overseas manufacturing and fossil-fueled transoceanic shipping negatively affects the environment and public health.

Researchers used a dataset on individual ship emissions to cross-reference a comprehensive set of cargo manifests and estimate the pollution connected with each unit of cargo shipping routes to the US and for the first time, assign those emissions to retail companies. Topping the list was Walmart, with 3.7 million tons of climate pollution emitted by its shipping activities in 2019, equal to the annual climate pollution generated by an entire coal-fired power station. Corporations Target, IKEA, Amazon, and eleven more companies were also examined.