Dr. Bonnie Nixon - Decarbonizing the Long Beach Container Terminal

Dr. Bonnie Nixon is the Sustainability Director for the Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), one of the world's busiest and greenest ports. The terminal handles 3.5 million, 20-foot containers annually. Its 4,200 foot long wharf can unload three of the largest container ships in the world at once.Air quality is an issue that drives Bonnie. She grew up in an industrial community in Northern New Jersey and knows painfully well the devastating impacts of bad air on human health. The San Pedro port complex receives 40% of all goods entering the United States. Bonnie explains that ports have five major sources of emissions: ships, short and long-haul drayage trucks, cargo-handling equipment, locomotives, and tugs. The result is that the communities surrounding LBCT have suffered from some of the worst air quality in the country. LBCT has addressed this head on. When ships come to its wharf, they receive shore power and turn off their engines which run with dirty bunker fuel. The Port's 93 cranes work without emissions as do the 102 automated electric transport vehicles that are guided by sensors embedded in the concrete that move containers on site. The Port is home to the largest battery exchange buildings in the world that automatically exchange batteries in 5 - 8 minutes.In 2030 Bonnie completed a net zero strategy for LBCT with a $250 million price tag. So far, she has raised $130 million of this to drive down Scope 1 (onsite combustion) and Scope 2 (purchased electricity) emissions. The Port has reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 85 - 90%. Thanks to monetizing Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits, LBCT has been able to purchase offsets for Scope 3 emissions related to ships, trucks, and trains run by its vendors. Bonnie is now working to clean up the Port's 270 rolling stock vehicles -- tractors, forklifts, trucks, buses, sweepers, etc. She is working with shipping lines to promote e-methanol to power the ships that come to and from Long Beach to achieve net zero status at the Port in time for the Los Angeles Olympics. She is also focused on resiliency strategies. Her quest is to demonstrate that even massive industrial complexes like LBCT can fully decarbonize their operations.