Shipping Emissions in Focus: Ship It Zero reveals Amazon, LG, Samsung and Home Depot’s stalled progress

Just in time for the holidays, the Ship It Zero campaign is bringing visibility to the impacts of dirty ocean shipping caused by mega retailers all year round but especially as they ship their goods during the holiday season. The campaign has announced the release of its 2024 Retailer Shipping Decarbonization Progress Reports, which calls upon IKEA, LG, Samsung, and Home Depot to improve their performance by 2025 when the next round of Ship It Zero Report Cards are expected.

The progress report follows Ship It Zero’s 2023 Report Card, where the campaign graded more than two dozen retailers and shipping carriers on their efforts to decarbonize and develop zero-emission fuels for maritime shipping. This past Prime Day, the Ship It Zero campaign, released a progress report on Prime Polluter Amazon: Ship It Zero 2024 Amazon Decarbonization Progress Report.

• Read Ship It Zero’s 2024 Retailer Shipping Decarbonization Progress Reports

Statements & Quotes

“IKEA, LG, Samsung, Home Depot and Amazon wield tremendous power and influence to shape the future of zero-emission shipping, but a year after our last report card, most retailers, with the exception of IKEA, are failing,” said Jonathan Butler with Ship It Zero. “We are bringing visibility to these major retailers during the holiday season to reveal their dirty shipping secret: these companies are still using heavy fuel oil, which is the dirtiest fuel on the planet. We need these companies to clean up their shipping act and commit to 100% zero-emission ocean shipping by 2030, and we call on IKEA to lead its industry peers towards a zero emission future!”

“Big retailers can’t keep hiding behind their flashy greenwashing campaigns while avoiding responsibility for polluting the climate and portside communities,” said Joshua Archer with Stand.earth. “There is a tremendous opportunity for first movers in clean shipping to show real leadership by committing to end the use of highly polluting fossil fuels within this decade. IKEA has a head start, but it’s not too late for Home Depot, LG, Samsung, and e-commerce giant Amazon to correct course. With under five years remaining in this critical decade, the clock is ticking for these companies to demonstrate true leadership in clean shipping.”

IKEA: Not Much Change

IKEA has taken concrete action to decarbonize its maritime shipping logistics operations in recent years. IKEA earned a B+ in our 2023 Decarbonization Report Card and was the highest scoring company overall. Although IKEA has made headway since the release of the 2023 report card, IKEA needs to do more to show its actions match its proclaimed ambitions. Bottom line: IKEA must work with its peers to invest in the research and development of zero-emission fuels and negotiate with carriers to have its goods transported on shore power-equipped ships. It’s time for IKEA to step up and lead the way to zero-emission shipping.

Home Depot: At Risk of Failure

As the largest retailer in the home improvement sector, Home Depot holds the market shaping power to transform the industry’s maritime shipping operations from polluting fossil fuels to zero-emission operations. Home Depot received an “F” in our 2023 Decarbonization Report Card. Bottom line: There have not been many public indicators that Home Depot is invested in long-term partnerships that help move zero-emission maritime shipping forward. Home Depot has not joined the Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Shipping (coZEV) initiative, or the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA). These two spaces are designed for the purpose of bringing companies together to innovate and invest in solutions for the reduction of maritime shipping emissions. Home Depot’s absence from these initiatives demonstrates a concerning lack of commitment to investing in zero-emission maritime shipping solutions and to mobilizing its industry peers to raise climate ambitions.

LG: At Risk of Failure

Electronics mega retailer LG’s presence in our daily lives is nearly ubiquitous. Unfortunately, LG has failed to publicly show it can be a corporate leader in reducing the climate emissions of shipping those products we use daily. In Ship It Zero’s 2023 Decarbonization Report Card, LG received an “F” and it received only 18.75 points out of 100, one of the worst among the 28 companies we graded. Bottom line: As one of the largest electronics retailers in the world — should join the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi), which helps establish international standards for setting greenhouse gas reduction targets. We think it is also important for LG to pursue partnering with organizations like the Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Shipping (coZEV) initiative and/or the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), both of which promote opportunities for companies to collectively work toward solutions that advance zero-emission maritime shipping.

Samsung: At Risk of Failure

As a company that has shipped 226 million smartphones in 2023, Samsung’s track record on climate and leadership on clean maritime shipping has been disappointing. In our 2023 Decarbonization Report Card, Samsung received an “F.” Samsung wasn’t the only company to receive an “F” on the report card, but it was one of the lowest scores. Bottom line: Samsung hasn’t joined initiatives like the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi), which would help ensure Samsung’s commitments are aligned with international standards for setting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Samsung also hasn’t joined some of the other big companies that ship electronics and appliances in spaces like the Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Shipping (coZEV) initiative, or the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), which provide opportunities for companies to collaborate and leverage collective power to accelerate the transition to zero-emission maritime shipping.

Amazon: At Risk of Failure

Amazon is not using its full sphere of influence and resources to take steps to achieve zero-emission maritime shipping in accordance with its purported commitment. The unfortunate reality is that from 2019 to 2023, Amazon’s maritime emissions actually saw a 26% increase. Its pledge to reach net zero by 2040 is not aligned with science-based targets to prevent further climate chaos and it has failed to disclose a roadmap that demonstrates how it will even reach this goal. In 2023, Amazon earned a "D" on Ship It Zero’s inaugural decarbonization report card. Bottom line: Since the 2023 Report Card, the Ship It Zero campaign’s continued updated research shows: (1) the trajectory of Amazon’s maritime shipping emissions over the last five years has increased (2) interim actions Amazon has adopted toward zero-emissions shipping are more akin to greenwashing than comprehensive climate action; (3) Amazon has failed to take leadership despite its market share and industry influence; and (4) the retailer has failed to commit to a plan that would meet a 1.5 degree Celsius trajectory, a critical threshold defined by climate scientists to avert irreversible climate chaos, defined in the Paris Agreement for maritime shipping.

Additional context: Amazon failing the climate across its shipping and logistics network

In September 2024, a joint study by Stand.earth, the Ship It Zero campaign, and Clean Mobility Collective showed Amazon has expanded emissions across its shipping and logistics network. Specifically, the report revealed:

• From 2019 to 2023, Amazon increased its U.S. air freight pollution by 67% (average annual growth of 15%), reflecting a deliberate decision to bypass emissions-reduction initiatives with an increased aviation focus. Last year, air freight generated more than 42% of the carbon emissions of a package’s journey in the U.S.
• From 2019 to 2023, Amazon’s delivery van carbon dioxide emissions grew over 190%, and its heavy-duty truck emissions grew by 51%. Heavy-duty trucks comprise the second largest share of U.S. dock-to-door emissions, with 37% of each package’s carbon output.
• Amazon’s U.S. inbound and domestic marine shipping emissions increased 26% in 2023 as compared to 2019. The company has not announced plans for the transition of this sector to zero emissions.
• In 2023, Amazon Logistics U.S. dock-to-door delivery pollution generated 5.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (+18% average year-over-year since 2019).
• In the near term, the report concludes that Amazon should commit to zero-emission deliveries in the last mile and maritime sectors. Amazon also must show a verifiable roadmap to zero-emission shipping in heavy-duty trucking by 2035 and aviation by 2040, and it must commit to putting its goods on zero-emission maritime ships by 2030. If the company fails to take these steps, it will put our climate and communities in peril during the remaining years of this critical decade.