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Laura Bowen Wegener talks about her efforts in ocean shipping decarbonization.
Amazon recently transported goods on the first-ever zero-emission capable cargo ship, taking our efforts to decarbonize our transportation network to the seas.
The effort, led by our Global Mile team, is part of a new collaboration with shipping and logistics company Maersk to transport Amazon goods using methanol, which produces less greenhouse gas emissions compared to other fuels. The Laura Maersk, known as the world’s first methanol-enabled feeder vessel and named from the Maersk company’s history, recently took its maiden voyage, carrying Amazon shipping containers from Shanghai to Rotterdam.
This bold step in decarbonizing our shipping started with the help of Amazon’s head of ocean shipping decarbonization, Laura Bowen Wegener.
“This is so exciting because it shows the world that cleaner shipping is possible. Companies like Amazon are willing to pay to move their cargo on vessels that can emit 95% fewer emissions than traditional ships. Innovation wins, communities thrive, and we progress towards a cleaner planet,” Bowen Wegener said.
Amazon recently finalized a 2023-2024 agreement with Maersk for the transport of 20,000 40-foot equivalent (FFE) containers using methanol through Maersk’s “ECO Delivery” ocean product offering.
Bowen Wegener, a chemical engineer focused on renewable energy and sustainability, joined Amazon in March, 2021, after nearly 12 years in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry, most of which was focused on sustainability. She found herself at a crossroad when providing environmental counsel on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea, where she had been living. When she saw the amount of emissions caused from the production of LNG, the plastic waste and pollution in the local South Pacific waters, and the extremely limited resources the locals had to deal with these challenges, it motivated her to define her life purpose: to enable a cleaner and more equitable world. Read more
Source: AMAZON
