Crowley Plans to Bring All Value-Chain Emissions to Net Zero by 2050

Crowley Maritime, one of the largest Jones Act vessel operators, has committed to achieving full net-zero emission operations by 2050 - including emissions from its own operations (Scope 1) and emissions from its counterparties (Scope 2 and 3). 

Crowley says that reaching this target will take an emissions cut of 4.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas per year - the equivalent of removing more than 900,000 cars from the road.

“Crowley is on a mission to become the most sustainable and innovative maritime and logistics company in the Americas,” said Tom Crowley, the firm's chairman and CEO. “Working together with our customers, suppliers, policymakers and others across our value chain, we can meet the climate crisis head on.”

The target will require extensive data collection and tracking - enabled by a partnership with Salesforce - as well as close engagement with the company's stakeholders. Like so many maritime firms, Crowley has found that its suppliers and partners account for the vast majority (80 percent) of its total Scope 1-3 emissions.  

"Collaboration with customers and partners is key to our mutual success reaching net-zero emissions using science-based standards,” said Alisa Praskovich, Crowley's vice president of sustainability. “By creating mutual accountability, we will spur innovation through the open sharing of ideas.”

Crowley's pledge meets and exceeds the ambitions of the global Getting to Zero Coalition, a 150-member environmental action partnership convened by the Global Maritime Forum. The coalition recently called for achieving "a shipping industry run entirely on net-zero energy sources by 2050," a pledge which addresses most Scope 1 emissions for vessel operators. The coalition's members have not yet pledged to address Scope 2 and 3 emissions from their customers and suppliers.