Skip to main content
Bezos Earth Foundation

Transforming LA Into a Hub of Green Industry

Insights

Transforming LA Into a Hub of Green Industry

By Catherine Zuckerman

Of all the things you’d expect to see at a massive city port, marine wildlife probably isn’t one of them. But on a windy, overcast day in the port of Los Angeles, there it was — a harbor seal, its rounded head popping up out of the water before ducking back under the surface.

We spotted the seal during a boat tour of the port, which is in San Pedro Bay and stretches across 43 miles of waterfront. The purpose of our visit was to see the work that the Bezos Earth Fund is supporting to decarbonize heavy industry — a large portfolio that also encompasses the Port of LA and Port of Houston and is aimed at transforming these locations into hubs of clean industry.

Why hubs? For one thing, says Lucy Kessler, Senior Program Officer for Sustainable Finance at the Earth Fund, hubs create a central location for both supply and demand. “Bound by a specific region, which would otherwise represent significant levels of emissions,” says Kessler, “hubs sit at the intersection of customers, geography, and collaborators and bring together actors from across value chains and sectors,” making it more affordable for companies to invest in industrial decarbonization.

Specifically, the goal of the two-year, $24 million grant is to achieve one gigaton of carbon emissions reduction by 2050 in a way that creates jobs as well as public health and environmental benefits for all.

Cleaner Shipping

At first glance, the port of LA — the busiest container-handling port in North America — seems like what you'd expect at a bustling gateway for international trade. Each of its terminals is like a small city, full of forklifts and towering cranes, with fleets of semi-trailer trucks lined up to transport cargo, and rows of shipping containers stacked on top of each other like giant, multicolored blocks.

But then a different picture begins to emerge. First: Here, at the country’s biggest container-handling port by tonnage, the air is noticeably clean. Second, roughly 100 of those trucks are zero-emissions. Compare this with 2021, when, combined with the nearby Port of Long Beach, 2.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent were emitted, representing two percent of California’s total emissions. Finally, remember the seal? It’s just one of many species, from starfish to seabirds, that live in and around these waters.

Through the Earth Fund’s grant, two organizations — Mission Possible Partnership (MPP) and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) — are working with ports on three types of projects: green shipping corridors, zero-emissions terminal operations, and zero-emissions trucking. Combined, these efforts are helping to accelerate the port’s goal to be the greenest port in North America, and among the greenest globally.

Our grantees assessed 138 industrial facilities in LA and Houston to find those that had the size and scale, local backing, and commercial potential as game-changing investments to make these two regions into centers of the new American industrial economy.

To date, the Earth Fund has deployed almost $24 million to support 27 projects, including 14 clean hydrogen projects, and four projects each in clean shipping, green cement, and sustainable aviation fuel. “We helped these projects move toward financial close by finalizing technological and economic feasibility, sharpening policy asks, engaging local communities, and designing financial solutions,” says Kessler. “As a result, we’re on track to unlock and accelerate $34 billion of capital expenditure, including $14 billion in federal subsidies, and reduce an estimated 648 million tons of carbon pollution through 2050.”

Rethinking Trucking

Back on land, the sun came out as we headed to nearby Long Beach to see WattEV, a charging depot offering commercial fleet users centralized charging solutions. The site opened in 2023 and enables simultaneous charging of up to 26 heavy-duty trucks. Site development was completed in part through public incentives and in consideration with the local electric utility, Southern California Edison, which provides the site with five megawatts of grid power.

Through the Earth Fund grant, MPP and RMI analyzed how companies like WattEV could help decarbonize more quickly the thousands of trucks servicing the port every day by reducing the costs of ownership to truck drivers. Further analysis found that just 54 regional charging sites would be needed to support every truck becoming zero-emissions (specifically electric).

Hyzon Motors

Meanwhile, companies like Hyzon Motors — a Rochester, New York-headquartered fuel cell electric vehicle supplier and high-power hydrogen fuel cell technology manufacturer — are supporting the decarbonization of heavy industry by focusing on clean hydrogen. As of 2023, Hyzon has delivered nearly 20 vehicles to customers worldwide, including the first sale and delivery of a heavy-duty fuel cell electric truck to a customer operating in the LA port. 

Fueling the Future

Combined, refining and aviation activities in California accounted for more than 35 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) emissions in 2021 — with operations at LAX airport alone contributing more than six million of those tons.

This is why the Earth Fund is working to also decarbonize the aviation sector, supporting companies that are producing sustainable aviation fuels.

As a classic golden hour set in, we arrived at World Energy, a former oil refinery located in the city of Paramount in LA county. Here, construction is underway to retrofit the site to house the country’s largest sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facility.

Green Industrial Future

Before touring the plant, we donned a full getup of protective gear. The area still looks like an oil refinery — a sprawling maze of tanks, pipes, and flare stacks. 

But like the port, there is more to the story. This site is leading the way to a green industrial future, building a blueprint for producing jet fuel that is affordable, accessible, and doesn’t pollute the planet. Instead of gasoline or kerosene, World Energy uses animal waste, such as fat, tendons, and cartilage, as the main ingredients in its fuel.

In a side-by-side demonstration, guess which one burned clean?

Decarbonizing heavy industry is a monumental task, and a vital one if we are to reduce emissions, protect nature, and create the future we want — without compromising all of the incredible progress we have made so far.

Our Newsletter

Stay Informed