Combining green and commercial objectives at Long Beach portCombining green and commercial objectives at Long Beach port
The Port of Long Beach is claiming environmental and commercial success with its 20-year-old Green Port programme.

Twenty years on from the inception of its Green Port programme, the Port of Long Beach (POLB) in southern California, celebrated both its environmental and commercial successes in its mid-January “State of the Port” broadcast.
The POLB’s CEO, Mario Cordero, who had been a Harbor Commissioner in January, 2005 when the program was implemented, before a stint on the Federal Maritime Commission, including as Chair from 2013- 2017, pointed to successes on both fronts.
Cordero brought massive applause from the 900 plus attendees when he said: “We’ve achieved environmental success, and commercial success…and I say it…let’s have more of both”. The successes were quantified during the broadcast with Cordero leading a cheer, where the assembled, in the Long Beach Convention Center, were implored to chant “92-71-98”. Since the 2005 Green Port inception, diesel emissions are down 92%, nitrogen oxides by 71%, with sulphur oxides declining by 98%.
It’s worth noting that the POLB, working closely in conjunction with the Port of Los Angeles (POLA), across San Pedro Bay, began its efforts, concentrating on reducing air pollution, long before “net zero”, “alternative fuels”, “ESG” and similar expressions entered the maritime vernacular.
Modernisation of the port’s drayage, as well as electrification of trucks and cargo handling equipment, shore power installations and the “Green Flag” programme, where inbound vessels are incentivised to slow down to 12 knots, burning less fuel, when they are within 40 nautical miles from the port, have played a big role in the success of the Green Port programme over the past years.
Though the presentation dealt less with the statistics on container throughputs and port traffic, the numbers are beyond impressive. The just finished 2024 saw an overall teu count of 9,649,724, up 20.3% from 2023, and, importantly, beating 2021’s record count of 9.3 million plus teu, by nearly 3%.
Compared to 2023, when fears of a labour strike caused cargo diversions to the East and Gulf coasts, imports rose 24.3% to 4.7 million teu while exports took a small step backward to 1.2 million teu compared to 2023. Empties moving through POLB were 3.7 million teu. Other milestones included 2024’s Q4 being POLB’s busiest overall quarterly container count.
One the data front, where POLB has been a leader with its data platform and information sharing, Cordero praised the work of Dr. Noel Hacegaba, the port’s Chief Operating Officer. Cordero mentioned data linkages with Union Pacific Railroad and hinted at ongoing discussions with BNSF Railroad with the aim of maximizing supply chain efficiencies.
Both of these “Class 1” railroads will be benefitting from the POLB’s $1.5 billion Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility, which, when completed, will enable increased trans-shipment between vessels and rail (reducing the trucking component). Another project in the works is Toyota’s effort, in partnership with a fuel cell provider, to produce generate renewable hydrogen, electricity and water; these would support Toyota’s operations in POLB.
Looking farther ahead into the future, Cordero’s presentation also showed that POLB is studying the proposed “Pier Wind” a possible 400 acre assembly facility for floating offshore wind turbines that would then be towed to future floating wind projects upcoast, in Central and Northern California.
Offshore wind also figured in the concluding session of the State of the Port presentation; POLB signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with California State Lands Commission and the Port of Humboldt (on the northern California coast) to collaborate on additional terminals that will support the nascent development of floating offshore wind in the upper reaches of California.
Resource: POLB presentation http://www.polb.com/stateoftheport
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