California is a leader in reducing pollution and bringing green jobs to ports

Cargo ships are some of the most stubborn polluters–but that’s all changing right here in California! Over the past few years, STAX Engineering has led the way with innovative pollution reduction solutions for ships at berth in California’s ports. By preventing pollution from entering the air, STAX’s technology improves air quality for communities near ports who are often burdened by the negative health impacts of dirty air. 

California’s ports are crucial to United States trade and shipping. Our ports handle 40% of the country’s containerized imports and 30% of exports. Mitigating air pollution from ports provides a major opportunity to benefit the climate, create jobs, and bring cleaner air to portside communities.

Recently, I met with STAX’s Chief Strategy Officer Edward Norton (who you might recognize from his award-winning appearance in Fight Club, among other films) and STAX CEO Mike Walker to discuss the company’s leadership in reducing pollution at California’s ports. STAX is one of the organizations leading California’s push to address air pollution from ports.

STAX’s barges are the first fleet approved by the California Air Resources Board to capture pollution from container ships, auto carriers, and tankers. Each one of STAX’s barges prevents emissions from polluting the air and provides good, green jobs–every STAX unit that connects to a vessel at berth provides equivalent pollution reduction to removing 27,000 cars from the road.

Their innovations don’t require retrofits to vessels themselves, making it quicker, easier, and cheaper to reduce pollution. Instead, STAX’s barges attach directly to ships to capture and filter out pollutants similar to the catalytic converter on a car. This means that they can immediately and proactively reduce air pollution in ports as we develop, scale, and implement clean alternatives to the current polluting vessels.

STAX Engineering CEO Mike Walker was recognized by the TIME100 Climate Innovators list for the organization’s global leadership in reducing pollution from ships at ports. It’s exciting to see California’s regulators and innovators leading the way!